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HISTORY 



OF 



SEWARD COUNTY 



NEBRASKA 



AND 



REMINISCENSES OF TERRITORIAL HISTORY 



BY 

w. w. cox 

Author of "Northern Eyes in Dixie," "Papers on Labor and Capiral," "History 

and Resources of the United States of Venzuela/' "Glimpses of 

the Rockies and California as seen in 1902." 



SECOND EDITION 



Jason L. Claflin 

Uljiyersity Place. Nebraska 

1905 






DEDICATION 

To the ever kind and loving companion that walked 
hand in hand with me nearly forty -four years of life's 
journey, sharing all the privations of frontier life, and lend- 
ing cheer in all the dark hours and performing so nobly all 
the duties incumbent on her as wife and mother, as neigh- 
bor and friend, ever ready to lend a helping hand in matters 
of charity or public enterprise — she that walked so faith- 
fully in the service of her Divine Master over half a century 
and when her work was all well done passed over the dark 
river to dwell in the heavenly home — is this book lovingly 
dedicated as a memorial, to Rebecca Sampson Cox. 

The Author. 



Usii 



' : 



PREFACE 



The author kindly asks the reader of this volume to be 
considerate in measuring the value of the work. 

All historical works are subject to criticism, and we are 
sure this can not hope to be an exception. Many incidents 
herein related were obtained from people now living and 
memory at best is defective. 

In many instances authorities conflict and the worst 
thing the author has had to contend with was, so many of 
the early records are lost or destroyed. We have searched 
diligently through the vaults of the county clerk's office for 
old records that should be there but seem to be lost in the 
shuffte, also in the county judge's office, where valuable rec- 
ords of the early days should be found, but they are 
wanting. 

But with material at command, with the help of many 
old time citizens and a personal knowledge, coming of forty 
years residence, we have measureably succeeded in giving 
the reader the essential facts of county history and trust we 
have been able to give a true pen picture of frontier life and 
also of our achievements through the passing years. 

We cannot say that we are entirely satisfied and yet we 
feel a degree of pride in having established many landmarks 
of history for the future historian, and being able to give 
the reader an intelligent idea of the country as it existed in 
its primeval state and the growth and progress to the pres- 
ent time. 

We cheerfully acknowledge our obligations to the good 
people who have assisted by valuable historic letters, and to 



8 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

editors for the use of their tiles, etc., and last but not least 
to the host of patrons who have met us so cheerfully and 
been so very liberal with us. 

We must say in all parts of the county we have met 
the most cordial welcome, and our labor among the people 
has been like a friendly visit. 



PART ONE 



TERRITORIAL HISTORY 



CHAPTER I. 



Nebraska Territory — Date Organic Act Boundaries — Area— Possibilities 
-A Great Epoch in Historj' — Slave Clause — Political Storm — Strife 
in Kansas — Nebraska Dominated by Southern Office Holders — First 
Newspapers — Squatter Claims— Mormon Exodus— California Trail 
— Mormon War— Freighting— First Settlement — Old Block-House 
and Ferry — Elections and Candidates — No Money to Get Back — 
Wouldn't Raise White Beans — Villages— Legislature of 1854-1855 — 
Panic — Gold Discovered at Cherry Creek — A Little Story. 



May 30th, 1854, the organic act creating the Territory 
of Nebraska was approved by President Frankhn Pierce. 

It comprised the land within the following limits: com- 
mencing at the center of the channel of the Missouri river 
on the fortieth parallel of North Latitude and thence run- 
ning west along said parallel to the sunimit of the Rocky 
mountains to the eastern border of Utah Territory, thence 
north to the forty-ninth parallel of North Latitude to the 
British possession, thence east to the west line of the terri- 
tory of Minnesota, thence southward on said boundry to the 
channel of the Missouri river, thence down the said main 
channel to the place of beginning. 

If the reader will turn to a map of the United States and 
trace these lines and note that this vast domain includes the 
present state of Nebraska, North and South Dakotas, one- 
fourth of Colorado, nearly all of both Wyoming and Mon- 
tana, making in the aggregate nearly one-half million square 
miles of territory or about the same area as England, Scot- 
land, France and all Germany combined. In regard to the 
vast possibilities of this empire, we note that the present 



10 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

population of these countries at this time reaches one hun 
dred and twenty milhons. According to that reckoning, 
when Nebraska, with the present area, becomes as well set- 
tled as these countries in Europe, it will contain eighteen 
and one-half millions and should it bear the same population 
that England now contains per square mile; it will reach the 
stupenduous number of thirty-eight and one-half millions of 
people. Should it ever bear as dense a population as Rhode 
Island with all her rocky hills, it will have over twenty-six 
millions and Rhode Island is yet increasing rapidly. 

The younger readers may not have noticed that this or- 
ganic act was a most peculiar and we might say the most 
important epoch since the revolutionary war up to the war 
of the rebellion. The magnitude of the territories of Ne- 
braska and Kansas was lost sight of, but all interest cen- 
tered in one part of a sentence in the organic act, which we 
quote as follows: "And when admitted as a state, or states, 
the said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be re- 
ceived into the Union with or without slavery." Senator 
Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois championed the measure in 
the Congress. It raised a storm in political circles such as 
had never been seen before. The whole country was agi- 
tated from center to circumference. It caused the total dis- 
ruption of the great Whig party and it rent the great Dem- 
ocratic party in twain.. The people south of what is known 
as Mason and Dixon's line were favorably to the act, while 
the people of the North were appalled at the attempt to 
fasten slavery upon the virgin soil that had been by solemn 
compact dedicated to freedom. The people became aroused 
as never before on the slavery question. Under the admin- 
istration of Pierce the territories were furnished with a full 
complement of officers in close sympathy with Southern sen- 
timent. 

The Southern people were determined to grasp the prize 
in sight and urged the occupation at once and many took 
their human chattels to Kansas and a few of them had the 
hardihood to invade Nebraska. The northern people or- 
ganized for resistance and urged emigrants to the territories 
and Vv'ere equally determined to save this new land to free- 
dom. On the great plains of Kansas there was bloody war 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 11 

to the knife and knife to the hilt. There were many scenes 
of ravage and plunder that were sickening. The struggle 
was desperate and bloody. Kansas was so situated beside 
slave territory of Missouri and Arkansas that the friends of 
slavery had great advantage but the free state men swarmed 
to the territories in great numbers and were led by men of 
tact and courage that they were enabled to defy all attempts 
to fasten slavery there. Nebraska, just beside loyal Iowa, 
gave the free state men a greater advantage, and the south- 
ern men soon gave up the idea of ever making it a slave 
state, and our people were comparatively free from the 
bloody struggles of that eventful period prior to the Rebell- 
ion. Our emigrants were mostly from the northern states 
and although dominated for seven years by pro-slavery dem- 
ocratic territorial officers it was seen from the first that Ne- 
braska could never be made a slave state. There was not 
the rush to Nebraska from either south or north for the 
simple reason that the South could entertain no hope here, 
and that Kansas must be the battle grounds and where the 
bone of contention was, there the mass of emigrants came to 
take a hand in the settlement of the matter. The simple 
fact that Kansas was the scene of the principal strife, we 
attribute the fact that she secured the larger share of emi- 
grants that were seeking homes in the new land. 

Nebraska had been traversed by tens of thousands of 
people long before the organic act. The Morman exodus 
had been across this land and many of the Pilgrims seeking 
a home in the desert wilds of Utah had crossed these fertile 
fields, but their eyes were fixed upon that far off desert 
home by the dead sea. They could not see the beauties 
of this land of transcendent natural wealth. Then great 
sw^arms of men and women of good sense, too passed up 
the Platte valley on their way to far off Oregon and could 
not see ought but miriage and desert wastes in this land of 
corn and wine. And again thousands more crossed this 
wilderness on their way to the gold fields of California. It 
is safe to say that hundreds of thousands of white people 
traversed this goodly land from the river to our western 
boundary without any of them making the discovery that 
this was naturally one of the richest and grandest por- 



12 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

tions of God's green earth. It was a true demonstration of 
the ringing words of the Master when He said, "Having eyes 
they see not." Of course there was no opportunity to make 
permanent settlement here until the organic act had become 
a law, and until the Indian titles had been secured by the 
Government for some of the lands. 

A few Indian traders and a few ferrymen were about all 
the white settlers of the Territory at the beginning of 1854. 
There had been a government fort at Calhoun as early as 1819 
under the name of Port Atkinson. This old fort, now long 
since in ruins, was sixteen miles north of Omaha. A man 
named Cabanne had a trading post ten miles north of Omaha 
and Manual Kisa also had a trading post one mile north of 
Cabanne's. The fort was built on the spot where Lewis 
and Clark held the council at the time of their visit to the 
northwest in 1804. 

In about 1827 this fort was abandoned and the garrison 
moved down the river and took up quarters on Caro Island 
which later received the name of Port Cragan. About the 
spring of 1828, after being flooded out, the garrison moved 
down the river and established Port Leavenworth. 

There was an Indian trader by name of T. B. Range on 
the site of Omaha as early as 1825. Peter A. Sarpie located 
a trading post at Belevue in 1822 and was a familiar figure at 
the time settlement began in 1854. 

Old Port Kearney at Nebraska City was established 
about 1847 and about the same time Fort Laramie was es- 
tablished on the North Platte river just near the eastern 
boundary of Wyoming. About the same time John Bolware 
established a ferry at Nebraska City. The exact dates of 
the fort and ferry are unattainable. We are indebted for 
what we learn of the dates of old Port Kearney and the ferry 
to the diligent researches of Prof. Geo. E. Howard of our 
State University. 

In the conversation with Col. Bolware in the winter of 
]859 and 1H60, at Nebraska City, he told the writer that he 
established the ferry twelve years previous and that corres- 
ponds well with Prof. Howard's researches. We have many 
times had the pleasure of seeing the old block house of old 
Fort Kearney. Col. Bolware claims that he first settled at 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 13 

Fort Atkinson and that next to Sarpie he was the first man to 
malfe permanent settlement in Nebraska. When we saw the 
old man last in 1865 he looked as if he had been here a long 
time. In the early summer of 1854 settlements began in 
earnest at Omaha, Plattsmouth, Nebraska City, Brownville, 
Rulo and Belevue, and some other points. 

It is a mere matter of conjecture or guess work as to how 
many people made settlements in 1S5-1:. There were quite a 
number that came as adventurers, without any intention of 
making it their permament home. The towns were purely 
speculative. Scores of paper towns were boomed for "all 
there was in it. " The agricultural possibilities of the country 
were scarcely thought of. Of course claims were located 
near the towns by what was known as squatters right, which 
by a "law all their own" were permitted to consist of a half 
section of land. Very few, indeed, thought of cultivating 
the soil, or trying to make permament homes. 

Every fellow was on the speculate, designing to make 
their pile, then go home to "America," as they used to say.. 
Many of such went home to "America" but they went dead 
broke. Some got so desperately hard up that they were 
forced to stay, as their "wife's relation" could not or would 
not send them money to pay their way back. To some this 
was a "God-send." They just had to stay and they began to 
stir themselves and accomplish something, and such can 
usually get a foothold. A few came for business from the 
start. They got a claim and went to work in. dead earnest 
and although these had much to contend with and oftimes 
had a desperate struggle to "keep the wolf from the door," 
they finally made it win and in time secured a competency. 

In this eventful year, 1S54, Wednesday, November 15th, 
the newspaper had invaded the wilderness and at Belevue the 
Palladium was issued. That day the first stick of type w^as 
set, at the McKinney house (a log cabin). Three printers 
from three states, Thos. Morton from Columbus, Ohio, fore- 
man; A. D. Long, compositor, from Virginia, and Henry M. 
Reed, from Massachusetts, an apprentice. The paper had 
been born at St. Mary, in Mills County, Iowa. 

The first words of this issue reads as follows: "Owing 



14 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

to our removal of the office we hope our readers will excuse 
the late appearance of this number. " This number notes the 
arrival to the Territory of J. Sterling Morton on the 13th 
inst. , from Michigan. 

One prominent paragraph of this issue is under the head- 
ing "Agriculture," as follows: 

"He that by the plow would tlirive 
Himself must either hold or drive." 

On the 6th of December the Palladium contains a list of 
the voting precincts of the Territory, viz : Richardson county, 
two; Nemaha county, one. This was tlien known as Forney 
county. Pierce (now Otoe), one; Cass, two; Washington, 
one; Burt, two; Dodge, one. Douglas is omitted. One 
voting place, Nebraska Oity, was at the house of Major H. 
P. Downs. He, who being asked by a stranger of Nebraska's 
possibilities as an agricultural country tersely remarked with 
his stentorian voice: "Ten miles west of the valley they 
can't raise white beans," yet that old soldier had resided here 
since 1847, as commander of the post. 

The Palladium did not winter kill because it lived till 
April 11, 1855, when it passed into history and gave up the 
ghost. The paper that came to stay was the Nebraska City 
News. It also had its birth place on Iowa soil, at Sydney, 
and was issued there tirst November 14th, 1854, with Henry 
Bradford as editor, but in the spring of 1855 the Nebraska City 
Town Site Co. employed J. Sterling Morton to take the sole 
management of the office and it was moved over home and 
was printed in the old block house April 12th, 1855. So on 
the twelfth of April, 1905, it will have rounded out a full 
half century, being, we believe, the oldest newspaper between 
the Missouri river and California. 

In 1856 the Brownville Advertiser was started at Brown- 
ville. It was founded by Dr. John McPherson, but soon fell 
into the hands of R. W. Furnas and Lyanna. This paper 
was quite prominent for a number of years as a republican 
advocate and was wide awake in arousing Nebraska people 
to push forward development. 

The Nebraska City Press under the name of "People's 
Press" was established by Hon. O. H. Irish and Matthias in 
the spring of 1859, and it came to stay, and next to its con- 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 15 

temporary the oldest living^ paper of the Trans-Missouri 
country. It has always been strongly republican, while the 
News has always held aloft the democratic standard. 

The Nebraska Republican was first issued in 1858 and 
lived up to 1889. 

The Omaha Times came to light under the management 
of Geo. W. Hepburn in 1857 and expired about 1870. 

The Wyoming Telescope was started by Jacob Dawson 
at Wyoming, Nebraska, in 1857, but only survived two years. 

The Omaha Nebraskan, edited by T. H. Robertson, the 
rankest copperhead of his days, in 1854, and expired in the 
sixties, just in time for Dr. Geo. L. Miller to start the ablest 
democratic paper that Nebraska ever contained, in 1H65, 
which continued to do battle for Nebraska and the democra- 
tic party for twenty three years, when it was consolidated 
with the World, and is now known as the World -Herald. 

There were many other papers started in various localit- 
ies, generally for the purpose of booming paper towns. 
Many of them were like the "rose of the wilderness, born 
to blush unseen." The number of the inhabitants that win- 
tered in Nebraska in the winter of 1854 and 1855 can never 
be known. It is safe to say they were few. There being 
but ten voting precincts as the story goes, people had to be 
imported from Iowa to hold elections in several instances. 
The settlements were confined to a narrow strip along the 
river, mostly. Should we attempt to estimate the population 
it would be guess work. As yet we are not aware that there 
was any incorporated village although there were many 
names of cities of great promise. The only means of com- 
munication was a stageline to Council Bluffs, known as Kan- 
esville, an old Mormon settlement, and an ocasional river 
steamer. 

The first session of the Territorial Assembly met in the 
winter of 1854, which had largely been elected by Iowa citi- 
zens, who in some instances brought along their candidates. 
(See Dr. Geo. L. Miller's paper.) It is needless to tell the 
readers that acting Governor Cummins winked at these slight 
irregularities. By his proclamation forming election districts 
there were whole counties where there was not a white set- 
tler and assembly men were accredited them and they must 



16 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

be represented "you know." One of the principal labors of 
that legislature was to bring forth a whole litter of wild cat 
banks, the story of which is told in another chapter of this 
book. In March, 1855, this farce of a legislature granted a 
charter to the first insurance company, known as the "West- 
ern Fire and Marine Insurance Campany," with full powers 
to do a general banking and exchange business, and thus 
was born the Farmers Western Exchange Bank of Omaha. 

During the first four years of occupation, settlements 
made but little progress. New immigrants were constantly 
arriving at the different points and others tired and were 
leaving. No lands were yet in market and the only title 
obtainable was by the squatter's right and this was not very 
satisfactory. Of course a pre-emptor's title was all right 
until the lands were thrown into market, but it happened as 
noted in another chapter that the lands were thrown into 
market just exactly in the wrong lime and it played havoc 
with the preemptors. 

Population increased slowly, but in 185S there was a new- 
development, or rather two new developments. The Mor- 
mons of Utah were in rebellion against the government and 
an army was sent there andhad to be supplied from Missouri 
river points, and the great firm of Majors, Russel & Wadell 
got a contract to haul army supplies to Utah and other west- 
ern forts. That year four thousand men with thirty thous- 
and oxen with great wagons, were sent across the plains. 
The outfitting point for the Utah traffic was Nebraska City. 
This gave a new impetus to business and the growth of the 
village for a time was phenomenal. Large brick business 
houses were erected and people fiocked in by the hundreds. 
Speculation ran high, and just about this time gold was dis- 
covered at Cherry Creek, at the site of the coming Denver. 
The wildest stories of the fabulous wealth of the mines were 
circulated all over the states and great droves of people 
gathered at all the Missouri river towns and made prepara- 
tions to cross the plains to the gold fields. This gave life 
and push to every hamlet on the river. Tens of thousands 
of infatuated people swarmed through Nebraska headed for 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 17 

the mountains, knowing nothing of the suffering and disap- 
pointment that was in store for them. Trade in all the towns 
was simply enormous. Everything was on a wild boom. 
Values of property increased fabulously. The wildcat banks 
issued money by the cart load and it was no uncommon sight 
to see boys with their pockets full of money, but soon this 
bubble burst. Thousands of disgusted Pikes peakers began 
their homeward journey, careworn and weary, and were 
ready to wreak vengeance on the towns of Nebraska that had 
started the wild stories that induced them to embark on the 
foolhardy venture. In the mad rush to get back to the states 
it is safe to say that along the great trials between the river 
and the mountains there was a million dollars worth of prop- 
erty thrown away and abandoned. Tired out animals, 
wagons, machinery, tools, groceries and provisions. Then 
who can tell of the numbers that perished and that sleep in 
unknown graves, or left to be eaten by the wolves on the 
plains? 

Just about this time t-he tidal wave of destruction, caused 
by the panic of 1857, had reached the western borders and 
there was a general collapse. The story of the situation in 
1859 and 1860 is dealt with more fully in another chapter in 
which is related the money condition, the land sales and con- 
ditions of the people; how they had to "snuff ashes and drink 
pond water" for a living. Perhaps we may be excused for 
relating a story of our personal experience in the summer of 
1860, just after the great fire at Nebraska City. We desired 
to work at carpenter work and we were anxiously looking for 
a job and it came to the point where we were very willing to 
saw wood, or dig, just any old thing for bread and butter. 
We called at a place where we understood there was help 
wanted. Yes, they wanted a man. What do you want per 
day, was the first question. Seventy-five cents and board 
myself. The terse reply was: "Pshaw! Can hire plenty of 
good men at twenty-five cents per day." My first job of 
work was sawing up a big rick of cord wood for a dollar and 
fifty cents, store pay. Store pay was good "you know," 
but the work was faithfully done and we went to hunt up the 



18 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

store. How our heart leaped for joy as we looked upon the 
stock of merchandise. It consisted of a few' remnants of an 
old busted up hardware stock. There were a few old log 
chains and two or three ox yokes, a few horse shoes and a 
little brown stoneware. Splendid stuff to feed a hungry 
family! 



CHAPTER II. 



Visit to Nebraska — Scenes and Incidents — First Sight of the Promised 
Land — First Dinnei" — Nebraska City — Looking up Land — Land Sale 
—First Entry— Floating Ice — General Appearance of the Territory — 
Wild Cat Banks— Paper Cities— Wild Speculation— Panic of 1857— 
All Good Money Gone — Morman Trade — Pike's Peak — Great Throngs 
of Emigrants — Majors, Russell and Waddell — (^reat Freight Trains 
— Galusha A. Grow — Homestead Law Vetoed — "Gave them a Stone" 
— Land Sharks — Great Fire — Mob — Disastrous Resiilts — Great Drouth 
of 1860 — Hard Characters — Whipping Post— Governor Black— Indian 
Trouble and Default of Major Denisten — A Land of Slavery — John 
Brown — Underground Rail Road Depot — Rebel Flag — War Meeting 
in 1861 — Alex Majors — River Steamers — First Apple Tree— Profes- 
sional Men — Noble Women — Letter from Morton. 



In the early autumn of 1859 we had the first opportunity 
to gratify our curiosity to visit Nebraska. 

At this time we resided in Page county, Iowa, at the 
little town of College Springs. A little company of us, in- 
cluding Abner Hunger, David Haskins and Robert Hopps, 
who resided in Nebraska City over forty years, but now de- 
ceased, started with the determination of seeing the new 
promised land of Nebraska. 

Passing over vast stretches of undulating prairie, wil- 
derness, watered by the east and west Tarkio's and the two 
Nishanahotina, we reached the village of Sydney (a city 
set upon a hill), the county seat of Fremont county, the 
second day about noon. We were taking matters leisurely, 
as we wished to see as much as possible of the country. At 
Sydney we were permitted to hear an animated political 
debate between the opposing candidates for governor of Iowa, 
on the important and exciting issues of that interesting 
period of our history. Gov. Kirkwood, known as the war 
governor of Iowa, and General Dodge, were the contestants 
for the people's votes. Just after leaving the little town 
our eyes rested upon a grander sight than Moses saw from 



20 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the top of Nebo's mountain. The valley of the Missouri 
with the great river sweeping by the long line of bluffs, of 
beautiful Nebraska, presented to us a panorama at once im- 
pressive and inspiring. About the dinner hour of the next 
day we crossed the great river and first set foot on Nebraska 
soil. Passing through the bright little city we camped for 
dinner at a great spring just west of Arbor Lodge and had a 
bounteous repast from Nebraska grown potatoes and a young 
prairie chicken, captured for the occasion. This was our 
first meal on this new soil and it was a good one as we cook- 
ed it ourselves over a camp fire. Like everybody, we were 
crazy to get land. By virtue of the president's proclama- 
tion the lands of Nebraska were to be opened to the markets 
of the world within a few days. The weather was delightful. 
The little city looked bright and cheerful, most inviting, 
indeed. The lands were smiling with the tall prairie grass 
waving and flickering wdth changing shades presented a sight 
at once bewitching, and to cut this matter short, we were 
captured body and soul. We were exciied. We all wanted 
some of that rich and beautiful land. We spent a day or two 
looking over the country as far west as Wilson's Creek, and 
made choice of quarters about eight miles west of the ferry. 
The Major's farm four miles west of the city was the last 
sign of civilization which met our eyes. All to the westward 
seemed an unbroken wilderness. 

We returned to the city to be in readiness for the open- 
ing of tJie land office. A great crowd of people from every- 
where were awaiting to get a first chance. The office had 
been open for some days to accommodate pre-emptors, but 
this was the first public sale day. E. A. Desland was the 
receiver and Andy Hopkins was registrar. 

That all might have a fair show, tickets were numbered 
and placed in a hat and shook up, when one of the agents 
held the hat up about as high as his head, and the people 
reached up over and picked a ticket from the hat, and just 
then it came our turn to get from that hat ticket No. 1, which 
gave us the privilege of entering the tirst section of land at 
a public land sale ever entered in South Nebraska. 

We were freely ottered a large sum of money for our chance 
but we had made arrangments with our company that the 



HISTOUY OF SEWARI> COUNTY, NEBRASKA 21 

one receiving the best number sliould use their number for 
all our party, so we had to turn down all offers. 

In this glad hour we had determined to make Nebraska 
our home. In the last days of February, 1860, we gathered 
up what little of the world's goods we had, and with the good 
wife and one nine months old babe (now Mrs. J. A. Ruby of 
Seward), we bade adieu to the old home and turned our 
faces toward Nebraska and on the last day of February, 1860, 
just as the sun was sinking behind the western hills, Captain 
Beabout shoved his little steam ferry boat from the Iowa 
shore amidst the fields of floating ice. 

Oh! how we watched with bated breath those ugly cakes 
of ice crash against our frail craft wh3re all our earthly trea- 
sures were, and then how lightly and how joyfully we first 
trod the firm soil of Nebraska. Nebraska then, as now, was 
"fair to look upon." But how little did we realize what was 
in store for us, else the heart had fainted! 

Two brave young hearts, with two pair of willing hands 
was our capital. We will now tell you of Nebraska as it 
proved to be when we became somewhat acquainted with it in 
I860. The first legislature of the territory chartered a lot of 
what is now known as wild cat banks. There were the Platte 
Valley bank, Western Exchange, Nemaha Valley bank, 
Florence bank, the DeSoto bank and we don't know how 
many more. They all issued money and plenty of it. The 
bills were handsome then. They all bore upon the face these 
precious promises: First, That they were redeemable in 
currency and again that the stockholders were personally 
liable. Now let us illustrate. You hold a hundred dollars 
of Platte Valley bills, and as you desire to send some money 
east, you step into the Platte Valley bank and say, "Mr. 
Nuckols, please, sir, would like to get some money" current 
with the merchant, "to send east." "Certainly sir," says the 
bland cashier, and throws out a hundred dollars in new, crisp 
Nemaha Valley bills. "Yes, yes, that is currency. " You 
take it, look at it. It looks all right; it is handsome as any 
picture, but somehow you are hardly satisfied. So you go 
twenty miles down to Brownville and ask the bank there to 
help you out of the trouble. "Oh, yes, we can fix you ouii,'' 
says the smooth fellow. "We can give you in exchange the 



22 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

best money in the world," and throws down one hundred 
dollars of Platte Valley money. "But hold," you exclaim. 
"I had that same kind of money and I exchanged it for 
yours at Nebraska City and now I have walked down here 
twenty miles to get something I can use." 

"Oh, well, then I can accommodate you," and throws 
down one hundred dollars of Florence money. "That's all 
right, sir, they have a gold sign." You are at the end of 
the rope. There is no other kind of money. All good money, 
gold, silver or good paper, had taken wings. Still money 
was plenty, such as it was, and speculation ran rampant. 
Paper cities sprang up here, there, everywhere. Thousands 
of claims were held by what was known as squatters' rights — 
by a right known only to themselves. Everybody was work- 
ing the "get rich quick" game. 

Nebraska City contained at the time eight or nine hun- 
dred people and was a supply depot for incoming immigrants 
and it had other and greater advantages. It was a trading 
point for the Mormons as they were journeying to Salt Lake. 
It was a great outtitting place for the gold seekers going to 
Colorado, but greater than either or both these, it was the 
great starting point for the overland freight that was to sup- 
ply the government forts and to supply the army in Utah 
during the Mormon war. Majors, Russell and Wadell had a 
contract with the government to haul thousands of tons of 
army supplies. Eveiything about the city was on the boom. 
It was a time of wild speculation and excitement. Now begins 
the trouble. In lb57 the great panic started on the eastern 
seaboard and gradually started westward like a great tidal 
wave, crushing and carrying everything before it. 

It came westward slowly but surely, leaving devastation 
and ruin in its onward march. 

Now appears one of the great men of history, Galusha 
A. Grow of Pennsylvania, who has been honored by his 
people with a seat in congress so long that the mind runneth 
not back to the beginning of his great career. 

This great soul as if by inspiration saw the impending 
storm that was to overtake and overwhelm the western 
pioneers and with an energy born of desperation he urged, 
and successfully, the passage of a homestead law. All the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 23 

people of the ^reat west said amen! and amen! for it meant a 
free home to tlie advance guard of civilization on these 
prairies secure beyond a peradventure. 

But alas! it must be recorded to the everlasting shame of 
President James Buchannan that he vetoed the bill which 
had become the hope of our brave pioneers. 

These people that had the courage to brave all the hard- 
ships and danger of the wilderness, to plant foundations of 
a great commonwealth, asked of the president a fish and he 
gave them a "stone." 

Just as the surging waves of that terrible Hood of woes 
had reached this fair land, all interests were paralyzed 
and destroyed by the panic without previous warning just 
like a sharp thunder clap from a clear sky. The same heart- 
less president issued a proclamation putting the lands of 
Nebraska on the market. 

Great God ! what a staggering blow to the helpless settlers. 
The wild cat banks had gone to their holes and had pulled 
the holes in after them. The people were absolutely without 
a currency of any kind. The settlers on the lands were 
helpless and at the mercy of the sharks that came from the 
east in great numbers as soon as the news of the proclamation 
was sounded through the land. For a settler to get, by any 
legitimate means, money, to ])ay for a quarter of land was 
impossible. The shark would come to his rescue however, 
in manner following: Land warrants were worth one dollar 
per acre or $160 for a quarter of land. The shark would 
charge two hundred dollars and would also charge forty per 
cent for the use of it one year. 

He would enter the land in his own name and give the 
settler a bond for a deed ui^on payment of two hundred and 
eighty dollars at the end of the year. There was inserted 
this innocent little phrase "Time is the essence of this con- 
tract. " Many did not understand what it meant but they 
found out its full meaning one year later. 

In 1860 when these contracts became due the people 
were worse off than ever and thousands gave up in despair. 

Had it not been for the dawning of a better day in 1863, 
when a nobler man occupied the presidential chair, and a 
blessed homestead law had been given them so that they 



24 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

could settle upon other lands, their lives would have become 
miserable indeed. 

In the spring of 1860, Nebraska City was a bright, promis- 
ing little city, although business was dull in the extreme and 
many were leaving, yet it had promise of a bright future, 
w hen these dark clouds should roll by, but the "hour when 
we thought not" came upon us on the memorable 12th of 
May, I860, a dreadful day in a dreadful year! 

With a heavy gale from the south and everything as 
dry as tinder, the devouring flames came . upon us and it 
seemed as if in less minutes than it takes to pen this para- 
graph, the whole business part of the city was enveloped 
in flames. There was no possible means of combatting the 
fire monster. 

Forty -six of the best business houses were consumed with 
almost an incalculable amount of merchandise as well as a vast 
amount of household goods and other property. The post- 
office,the best hotel, "The Nuckols House," stores, shops and 
other buildings went up in smoke. The loss was immense, as 
most of the buildings were costly brick structures and there 
was but slight insurance. On that frightful day with that 
hot flame and smoke ascended such a wail of horror as we 
pray God we m^iy never hear again. 

When the fire fiend had spent its force, another flame 
arouse. This time it was a flame of passion from maddened 
men. Some slight suspicion had been attached to a poor 
wretch for having set the fire. 

An old lady had seen a fellow leaning up against the 
building where the fire started, lighting a pipe and some one 
thought it might have been this man who started the fire. 
Crazy men rushed upon him with the fury of a cyclone 
while he was in the hands of the ofticers. The mob was 
led by S. F. Nuckols who had lost heavily by the fire. The 
officers by dint of perseverence got the fellow away from the 
mob and into the jail (the old block house). For a time it 
seemed as if the officers would be overpowered, the man 
torn to pieces and sent up in a chariot of fire. On trial 
there was not a vestige of evidence against the fellow, only 
general bad character. 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 25 

The city was virtually destroyed even worse than Chic- 
ago eleven years later. All interests were paralyzed. 

Property depreciated until it had no sellinj? value. It 
seemed for a time that hope and energy had gone up in 
smoke with the property. Scores of men and women tied 
from the city as if it was a plague spot. Only three months 
had elapsed when we learned that our cup of bitterness was 
not yet full. 

Hot monsoons from southern shores swept this fair land 
as if breath from out the mouth of hell had been turned loose 
upon the world. Sixteen days and nights without a lull 
these scorching, blighting winds prevailed. Our Kansas 
neighbors were just a little nearer the gates of hell than we 
were and got the worst of it, but we were too near for com- 
fort, or profit. 

Our people secured a very little small grain. Wheat 
straw was not much longer than a pen stock, but the few 
grains in the little short heads were plump. So far as we 
heard there were no cases of starvation in Nebraska, but God 
only know how some of the people managed to live through 
the terrible ordeal. Those who pine and cry over hard times 
in these blessed days of plenty know little of what they are 
talking about, and if they could really know what the people 
went through in those dark days, just as the war clouds 
were gathering, they would hide their faces for very shame. 

Nebraska Oity, like all frontier towns, had some hard 
characters to deal with, and when the courts seemed lax and 
slow in executing the laws the people were ready and will- 
ing to lend a helping hand. 

In the winter of 1860 and 1861, a couple of worthless 
fellows were strongly suspected of being horse thieves and 
with "I guess so" evidence, an angry mob gathered and de- 
termined to tie the fellows to a post and give each of them 
forty lashes on the bare back. 

The mob was led by one Nick Labou, (a rather tough 
character himself.) The inferior one of the two was led out 
first, stripped and tied and received his forty stripes and meek- 
ly received the warning to take his departure immediately. 
The second fellow, much the greater rascal without doubt, 
but was smarter and was plucky to the last, proposed 



26 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

to argue the case. He defied the mob and hurled anathemas 
and maramathas at them without stint, and he finally awak- 
ened the sympathy of a man of wealth and standing by the 
name of Isaac Coe. He undertook to talk to the mob, and at 
first they hooted him, but Coe was made of stern stuff and he 
fairly brow beat that angry mob out of countenance. They 
finally untied the man and sneaked off like whipped curs. In 
these early years Nebraska City was largely dominated by 
southern influence. Some of the government appointees were 
Southern gentlemen, or at least in sympathy with Southern 
sentiment. This was also the home of several Territorial 
officers. Among the resident officers was Gov. Samuel Black, 
a Pennsylvanian. but a pro-slavery democrat, and a most 
bitter partisan. However, when the supreme hour of trial 
came, he proved loyal to the old fiag and gave his young 
life in defense of its honor. The governor was a bright ap- 
pearing young man, with jet black hair and black eyes, nice- 
ly trimmed beard, tall, slender and stiaight as an arrow. 

It was generally understood that he was rather lax in 
his morals, but so far as we were able to judge with only 
partial acquaintance, he was a good officer. Hon. J. Ster- 
ling Morton was Secretary of the Territory. Mr. Morton 
was twice called upon during his encumbency to perform 
the duties of Governor. 

Major Denisten, Indian agent of the Otoe tribe, was the 
only one in government employ of whom we remember that 
proved a traitor. He was a traitor and a thief as well. 
The government had sent money (about fourteen thousand 
dollars) to pay the Indian annuities, and under some pretense 
he withheld the money until the Indians becanie impatient 
then exasperated. Finally the whole tribe headed by Chief 
Artaketa came from their reservation in Gage County to the 
city and demanded of the major their money. The business 
men of the city were in full sympathy with the Indians, not 
for their love for the red men, but they were anxious for 
their trade. Many of the people were anxious that the 
money should be paid because they feared an Indian outbreak 
if the Indians should not receive their dues. 

The major was obstinate and while he admitted having 
the money he did not propose to be dictated to by a lot of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 27 

red skins. He would not pay out the money till he got a 
good ready. 

The Indians were in no mood to be trifled with. At a 
criticcil moment the Indians made a rush for him and bound 
him with ropes and dragged him through the streets from 
the east end of the city to his residence in the west end. 
Wild excitement ruled the hour and the people rushed to the 
scene of trouble. When we reached the major's house the 
yard was filled with Indians and white people all in a state 
of terrible excitement. Many of the Territorial otticers were 
present including Gov. Black. Nearly all the business men 
of the city were in the crowd. 

The cooler heads among the officers and people exerted 
themselves in allaying the excitement and in some way af- 
fect a satisfactory compromise. 

By the help of an interpreter Chief Artaketa addressed 
the people setting forth in strong and forceful language the 
wrongs his people had suffered, how many of them had gone 
hungry and cold through the dreary winter by the perfidy of 
the agent when the Great Father had made ample provision 
for feeding and clothing his red children. 

The old chief had the full sympathy of the people. This 
was our one opportunity to listen to true Indian eloquence. 
His great soul was all on fire, his tongue was loosened and 
his every motion was eloquent while we could not understand 
a word spoken. Yet we stood entranced as his burning 
words came forth like a stream of fire from a volcano. 

Under pressure, the major finally agreed to go over to 
the agency in a few days and pay over the money, but the 
Indians would not take his word until Gov. Black pledged 
his honor as a gentleman and as Governor that the 
money should be locked up in Ware's bank safe and there re- 
main until the time set to go over to the reservation and 
the governor promised that he would go with the major and 
see that the money was properly paid out. This satisfied 
the people and the Indians acquiesced. 

We believe that the governor acted in good faith and 
fully intended that the agreement would be carried out to 
the letter. But it was the major's heart to steal the money 
and carry it over to the enemy of the country. He succeeded 



28 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

in deceiving his friend, the j^rovenor, and while he was sleep- 
ing one dark stormy night, the major, with the help of per- 
sons unknown to us, got hold of the money somehow and 
started for Dixie's land, and they got there. If the money 
had been in Ware's safe, the question remains a puzzle, how 
they got it out. Efforts were made for his capture but they 
were unavailing and the next we heard of him, he was in 
South Carolina in the employ of the rebel government. 

It may sound strange to the younger readers to hear 
that Nebraska, in ante-bellum days, was a land of slavery. 
In 186U there were a number of slaves at Nebraska City. 

Alexander Majors had two or three. S. P. Nuckols had 
two and there were some others. One government official, 
Mr. Harden, brought some slaves to the territory. Wheth- 
er these slaves were brought merely as servants or to serve 
a political purpose we knew not. But this much we do know 
that the Northern people looked npon the matter with deep 
concern, and with a grave suspicion that it was an attempt 
to fasten slavery with all its hateful consequences on this 
sacred soil. Slavery however was out of place here, and 
when a slave desired to go free, it was easy to secure a ticket 
over the "Underground Rail Road" with safe conduct to 
Canada. 

Nebraska City was one of the stations on the system of 
which old John Brown was general superintendent. Here 
were rested, fed and cared for, scores of weary and hungry 
fugitives. 

In a deep ravine just north of the cemetery was a cave 
which was undoubtedly a resting and hiding place for the 
poor creatures. This cave was on the property of a Mr. 
Mayhew whose wife w.as a sister of Kagie, one of Brown's 
trusted followers. We visited the cave in the summer of 1H60. 
It was about sixteen feet deep and the entrance was from a 
deep ravine and well hidden by the brush, so that the casu- 
al observer would not discover it. A hollow log was used 
as a ventilator and reached the surface of the ground. The 
owner always claimed to be a rank democrat, but we could 
not get him to explain the use of that cave. 

It may aleo sound strange to young Nebraskans that the 
rebel flag once floated over our Nebraska. Some prominent 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 29 

men of that day are inclined to dispute this episode, but we 
know of what we write, for we saw the hateful thing with 
our own eyes. It will be remembered that South Carolina, 
the leader in the secession movement, adopted a flag that 
fairly represented the venom that rankled in the bosom of the 
deluded people, "The rattle-snake flag." This most hateful 
emblem of treason embellished with huge and most vicious 
looking reptile, was found waving over the old block house 
one bright morning in the winter of lS(iO and IHBl, but Ne- 
braska had not seceded neither had she any intentions in 
that line. Just who was the guilty party was never quite 
plain, but grave suspicions rested on one Augustas F. 
Harvey, better known as "Ajax. Mr. Harvey was a strong 
pro- slavery democrat with secession proclivities. He was a 
man of marked abilities as a writer and was shortly after 
this editor of the Nebraska City News and later editor and 
publisher of a paper in Lincoln. He was a rank partisan and 
appeared to have no love for the government. 

That rattle-snake flag could not long float m the breezes 
of Nebraska. As soon as the good people of the city had 
awakened to what was going on that reptile flag came down 
in a hurry and the Star Spangled banner again waved over 
the land of free Nebraska. 

In the early spring of 1861 when President Lincoln called 
for troops, a war meeting of the citizens was held. Many 
prominent citizens were present. We well remember a young 
lawyer with a large, bushy head of long, raven hair, a man 
of grit and enthusiasm. This was O. P. Mason, later one of 
our most distinguished lawyers and once our chief justice. 

J. L. Boydston was present and lent all his force in 
awakening the war spirit and in organizing the Nebraska 
1st regiment. 

General W.B. Burnett, surveyor general of the Territory, 
a man that had distinguished himself on many bloody fields 
in Mexico, made a little speech that thrilled our young heart 
as never before. ^ He loved the old flag under whose folds he 
had carried victory on many a hard fought battle-field, and 
now when recreant hands would trail it in the dust his whole 
soul rebelled against the thought. He was ready to sink the 
partisan in the patriot. We will never forget his eloquent 



30 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

peroration wherein he quoted words of pathos, born of love 
for his country, the immortal words of Drake: 

"Flag of the true hearts only hope and home 

By Angel hands to valor given, 
Thy stars hath lit the welkin dome 

And all thy hues were born in Heaven." 

A most prominent character of that day was Alexander 
Majors, who was at the head and was general manager of 
the great freighting establishment of Majors, Russell and 
Wadell. The business of the concern was of immense pro- 
portions, employing in a single season four thousand men 
and thirty thousand oxen with thousands of great prairie 
schooners that would carry ten thousand pounds of freight 
each and which required six yoke of strong oxen to haul. 

Twenty-six of these great wagons were required to make 
one train and three hundred and twelve oxen to furnish the 
motive power. The drivers were known by the euphonias 
name of "bull whackers." Each train had its wagon master 
and assistant. These were shrewd wirey frontiersman, who 
were thoroughly schooled in all matter pertaining to the 
"wild and wooly west." They were mounted on broncho 
ponies. Eacli train was provided with two or three extra 
drivers. Every man in the train (about thirty) was furnished 
a pocket bible as a protection against moral contamination, 
two Colt's revolvers and a huge butcher knife as protection 
against Indians. 

Each man wore a broad brimmed hat which many times 
bore some strange device. The driver carried a great whip, 
the snap of which was a terror to the poor brutes under his 
control. Every wagon would had straped to the gear an 
extra pole, one or two yokes and an ingenious contrivance 
for greasing the wagon. 

There was a chip saclc hung to each wagon box in which 
dry cow chips were saved and carried to do the cooking and 
were filled during the day by the drivers. There was scarce- 
ly any timber along the road this side of the mountain. At 
night these wagons would be placed in a circle with but one 
opening through which the cattle could be hurried in times of 
danger or sudden attack. Vigilant guards were maintained 
every night. The camp must be continually on a war foot- 



History of seward county, Nebraska 31 

ing, as prowling bands of Indians were constantly on the 
watch for opportunities to plunder, and with all these pre- 
cautions there were many trains pillaged, the wagons burned 
and cattle stolen and frequently many brave men perished. 
The "bull whackers" were a tough looking crew, but for all 
that the mass of them were noble men, in disguise. Many 
of them were finely educated and some of them graduates of 
eastern colleges and generally their hearts were as large as 
the hearts of the oxen they drove. They were generous to 
a fault, but ready to resent an insult at the drop of the hat. 
They would go all lengths to assist a comrade or other person 
in distress. While they were schooled to hardships and 
danger, in caring for the sick of their number they were as 
gentle and kind as a woman. 

Mr. Majors was a most remarkable man. He was illiter- 
ate so far as school education was concerned, but in a 
business sense he was wise beyond most men. A man of 
sterling integrity, of wide experience and a most ardent pro- 
fessor of the Christian faith, a preacher of the gospel of 
Christ. Wherever the Sabbath overtook him, in the mount- 
ain fastesnesses, on plains or at the city, he would gather his 
men about him and preach the Word of Life to them, and 
impress upon their minds the necessity of purity of life, of 
honest purposes, of high aspirations and a remembrance of 
their mother's teaching at the old home. In his contracts 
with the men it was required that they should abstain from 
profanity, and all kinds of immoral conduct. This had a 
very beneficial effect upon the boys. It was the aim of Mr. 
Majors to send the boys home to their parents better, rather 
there worse than when they had left the parential roof. He 
paid liberal w^ages for the round trip sick or well unless dis 
missed for misconduct or neglect of duty. 

Many of the boys saved handsome sums or money. 
Merchants, and especially clothiers, wore broad smiles upon 
their faces, when they heard of one of the trains a]3proach- 
ing the city, for it meant a harvest to them. Sometimes as 
many as thirty suits of clothes were sold over one counter 
in an evening. After the long tramp to Salt Lake and re- 
turned, the boys w^anted new clothes to wear home. At the 
outfitting station in the northwestern part of the city were 



32 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

several large warehouses, one outfitting store, shops and 
several cozy dwellings and a nice little park which was pro- 
vided with seats, a speaker's stand where, during the sum- 
mer and fall there were held religious services every Sun- 
day. Most pictures have their shady side. Strange as it 
may seem to us such a good man, of such sterling qualities, 
Mr. Majors was a slave holder and actually brought slaves in- 
to the territory some of which we saw in the summer of 1860. 
If we remember correctly the last of them took passage on 
the underground railroad in the fall of 1860, about election 
time. It is safe to conclude that no slave ever suffered from 
cruel treatment at the hands of Mr. Majors. 

All the freight and most of the immigrants of that day 
came by steamers. The ari'ival of a steamer was a matter 
of great interest, for it brought supplies of all kinds also the 
mails and many passengers. Whenever the whistle of an 
incoming boat was heard there would be a general rush to 
the levee. Some went through curiosity, some on business, 
others to meet wife, mother or some friend. The river 
steamer was a thing of beauty and a joy to all beholders. 

One of the first things of importance, that many of our 
pioneers thought of, was the planting of orchards. Early 
as the fall of 1860 there were several orchards in bearing- 
We remember Joel Draper, J. H. Masters and a Mr. Gregg, 
each had bearing trees. It was my pleasant privilege in 
1892 to visit J. H. Masters and was shown the first apple 
tree planted in the territory, planted by his own hands the 
day he first arrived, March 16, 1855. Its name is "Williams 
Favorite. " It began bearing in 1859 and bore fruit up to that 
date, 1892. Mr. Masters brought seven trees from Illinois 
with him and the planting of them was the first work of his 
long and noble career in Nebraska. We rejoice that the 
good old people yet live to enjoy the fruits of a well spent 
life. 

There were many we would be glad to mention in these 
reminiscences, who helped nobly in laying deep and broad 
foundations for this great arid prosperous common wealth. A 
few are yet living and are residents of the beautiful city, 
some in other places, but the great mass of them are sleep- 
ing, resting from their labors. We must mention some of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 38 

the brave souls whom it was our pleasure to know. Rev. J. 
M. Young, Bishop Talbot, Dr. Lemon, Rev. Tagert, all 
gone to their reward. The Master said in each case, "Well 
done my good and faithful servants, come up higher." Then 
there was good old father Rev. Giltner, who mixed the 
mortor with his own hands for the first Presbyterian church 
in Nebraska, and through all the years up to 1903, (when 
he was told, "it is enough,") he had jjroclaimed the gospel of 
his Lord and Master on the western border. He died at 
Aurora, "full of years and full of honors." Then there 
was H. K. Raymond who did so much to develop educational 
interests in the city. In the legal profession were Judge 
O. P. Mason, W. H. Taylor, W. L. Boydston, Judge Kinney, 
and John Croxton. In the medical profession were Dr. 
Bowen, the oldest physician in the territory. Dr. F. Renner, 
and Dr. Mathews. In the art preservative was Thomas 
Morton, who set the first type and printed the first paper in 
Nebraska, The Palandium of Belevue, dated November 14, 
1854. Shortly after this Mr, Morton moved into the upper 
story of the old Block house and established the Nebraska 
City News. He owned and controlled the News as long as 
he lived. Hon. J. Sterling Morton was its first editor, be- 
ginning in 1855. 

O. H. Irish founded the Peoples Press in 1859. Milton 
M. Reynolds edited the News in 1860. Hathaway and Ma- 
thias (Mr. Hathaway died at Staplehurst recently) edited 
the Press just at the time of the fire. These were all faith- 
ful friends of Nebraska. 

Among the noble band of mothers that have gone to 
their reward was Mrs. Caroline Joy Morton, Mrs. Mary T. 
Mason, Mrs. Joel Draper and many others that we would 
like to name. 

Of the few faithful servants that still remain are J. J. 
Hostetler,*N. S. Harding, E. G. Hawley, Mrs. Darvin Peck- 
ham, Mrs. Robert Hopps and J. J. Imhoff. Among those 
who are gone we must not forget, our ancient and Squatter 
Governor Wallace Pearham. He was county treasurer in 



*Mr. Hostetler has died since the above was written. 



34 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

1861 and 1862. Also sheriff Shroat and Hon. Jacob Dawson 
who afterwards helped so much in founding Lincoln. Then 
there was Col. Hiram P. Downs, who fought like a tiger in 
the war and was promoted to a brigadier generalship. 

One remarkable feature of the Nebraska pioneers was 
their marked individuality. There was scarcely one that 
if you chance to meet, whom it would be possible to ever 
forget. Every man was here for a purpose and every one 
was a host. They were here laying foundations upon which 
to rear this great and beautiful Nebraska. How well they 
did their work is fully attested by the glorious common- 
wealth that is rising in symmetry and beauty on the founda- 
tions which were laid by their hands. 

As an appendix to the above, we are able to give an 
extract from a private letter received from Hon. J. Sterling 
Morton date of January 25, 1893. It seems to be such a clear 
statement of historical facts as will forever settle some 
questions that hitherto have been in doubt, that we are glad 
to give it a place in these pages: 

Dear W. W. Cox:— 

The Nebraska City News was tirst published at Sydney, 
Iowa, and dated at Nebraska City in the autumn of 1854 and 
really moved to the city in December 1854. Then it was 
the property of the Nebraska City Townsite Company. In 
1855 that company hired the writer to edit the paper at 
the princely sum of fifty dollars per month and was em- 
ployed for one year. I was authorized to hire printers and 
discharge them at will. At about this time I formed the ac- 
quaintance of Thomas Morton at Belevue, who set for the 
Palandium the first .stick of type ever set in Nebraska. I 
called him to act as foreman for the News, and with his 
help we issued the first number of the News ever issued in 
Nebraska April 12, 1855, from the original old Blockhouse 
of old Port Kearney, which had been built by the govern- 
ment in li-i47. In 1860, when the city was about wiped out 
by fire, the News office, among other things, was destroyed. 
Then the Mortons bought of Jacob Dawson the Wyoming 
Telescope office and all it contained in papers and printing- 
material and besides they purchased all the material of a 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 35 

large establishment at Otoe City eight miles south of the 
city on the Missouri river. The old files show that the 
News for a long time had quite a successful career under 
the two Mortons. After the fire the owners of the Press 
(it also being destroyed) went to Omaha and purchased of 
Dr. G. C. Monell, brought it to the city, thence took it to 
Lincoln, and on it was printed the first number of the com- 
monwealth which was "John, the Baptist" of the State 
Journal. W. W. Carder was editor and publisher. But the 
first number of the Press was run oif on the press of the 
Wyoming Telescope as stated by the first number of the 
paper after the fire. This was by the courtesy of Jacob Daw- 
son. Then the Press was owned by Hon. O. H. Irish but 
subsequently sold to Mathias and Hathaway and Joseph E. 
Lamaster was financially interested in the concern. 

The rattlesnake flag episode, I never heard of it until I 
heard of it in your paper. It is .strange that the papers of 
that day made no note of such an episode, and I think that 
Dr. Renner is right when he declares that it was a joke of his 
own, that he personally put it up and took it down, the 
aforesaid rattlesnake emblem of secession and war. 

Signed, 

J. Sterling Morton. 

Circumstantial evidence is all against Mr. Morton's the- 
ory. There were plenty beside the strong republican like 
Dr. Renner that would like to see that flag float. 



CII A I»^l^ KU I I I, 



Salt Basin— The (ircat Wilderness — First Fianie House West of Neb- 
raska City— Wm. T. Donovan's Home— Antelojie on Gov. Square 
—Appearance of the Basin- Exciting Ride — Early Settlers of Lan- 
caster County Salt Business -Darwin Peckhani — First Men Met at 
Basin — Salt in (xreat D(>niand — A Corner on Salt— Visits of Distin- 
guished Men — Men Engaged in Salt Trade — First Frame House in 
lianuast(>r ('onnty- Making a Collin — S(mie Well-Dressed People — 
1H()'* Prosperous- Indian Story, Cooked and \V(>11 Salted Fourth of 
July, lS(i2 The First Flag— Visit of Rev. Young and Party Found- 
ing of Lancast(>r--Yankee Hill — Old (^lay County John Cadnian — 
H. W. I'arker and J. S. (rregory — C^ounty Seat Election in lS(i4 — 
Indian War Dance — Great Fish Story — Game — Mi.ssouri Rebels — 
Fiist r^irths — Court Scenes- First District Court — Indian Scare — 
One Sad F(^ature Wonderful Transformation Is it a Dream-land? 



Wliilt' we were yv\ iicilizcn of N(>hiMsl\;i City in Il\('t';irly 
sniimicr (>r \^{)\, work l)('in<4" so .sen rcc ;m<l Iiai'd lo coiimiiind, 
we wore constant ly on t lie look' out lor st)nii'tliinj4; lu'ttiT. 
Wc liati luMrd sonuM liinu,- al)out llio Salt Rasin away oft" Avost, 
and of its richness. W'c also k'ncw that salt was scarce in 
the niark'ct, ami \(M\v hii^h and we had an inoi'dinaic desire 
to see for ourseir. ()neday about the last of June wo lia])- 
ponod to I'ofni tlu* acciuaintance of Win. 'I\ Donovan, a resi- 
dent of Tjaiicast«M' (\>unty ii(>af tlu> Uasin. 

lie ^"a\'e a ^lowin^- account of the country and of the 
^reat possil)ilities of t h(> salt inticrests thei-e. So we ariMUiitul 
our alTairs and accompanied him honuv The usual mo(lt> of 
tiMA'cl in those >4'oi)d old days was lirst. proxide sonu» *'<4'rul)" 
to tak'e alon*:: and a crud(> campinii' out lit. \Vil(» titled us out 
with a l)asl<(>t ol lunch and a hlankct ortwoaiul friend Dono- 
\an had thecoll'ee pot and I'r.Ninj^' pan. 

()nr con\<'yiince was an o.\ team and an old lundnM" wa*::- 
on. We set sail on the houndh^ss prairie just aftiMMioon and 
made our lirsl camp lire on Wilson ("reek ahout ei^hl miles 
from home. A Tier passing" the Major's farm four miles out. 



HISTORY OF SF.WAKn t orXTY. NEBRASKA 37 

we entered upon an tx-ean or wua prairie. For some miles, 
or until we reached Wilson Creek, the only sigm of civiliza- 
tion was the trail and the surveyoi"s' stakes and monnds. 
Near our eampingr ^'ound at the little rocky foi-dHon.Wm. J. 
Thompson had a claim. He it was that became one of Sew- 
ard county pioneei"s a year later. 

A short distance away Mr. Wlisoii uvea. He was the 
man for whom the civek was named. The next day's jour- 
ney over the rolling hills led us by the McKee settlement 
twenty miles further out. That was on the Nemaha, near 
the site of the present town of Syracuse, but Syi'acuse had not 
got there yet. 

James Iler. that later ixH.unLe a eitizeu of the Pleasant 
Dale settlement, also lived just by the McKee ranch, as we 
called it. McKee's folks (a widow and two sons) had a very 
comfortable fi-ame dwelling, the only one between the Major s 
farm and the sundown, so far as we ever heard. 

It is quite certain there was not a fi'ame house in Ne- 
bi"aska west of that point and probably not in Colorado or 
Utah, as we have observed all the older buildings in the 
entire west wei"e of adobe We have noticed that all the old- 
er buildings at Denver and Salt Lake City wei-e something 
beside frame. 

So we believe that the city of Sacramento was the near- 
est frame house to the westwai-d. The next improvement 
we met was that of John Roberts on the west of Nemaha. 
near where Palmyi-a now stands. Some few miles westwai-d 
from this Mr. Meeoham had settled on a elaiiA- Mr.Meechani 
was a unique character that started to Salt Lake with the 
other Mormons, but somehow he fell out of the ranks or they 
put him out. we are not t-ertain which. He made us welcome 
and we ivmained over night with him. Right here we must 
tell a little story. Mr. Meecham. some years later, thought 
he was well titted to be a county eonkmissioner of Lan- 
caster County. He managed somehow to get a nomina- 
tion and made the canvass and got seaix^ly no votes, and 
upon hearing the election news he remarked that he ran to 
find c>ut what people thought of him. and he had found out. 
His claim was not far fix">ni wheiv Bennett station now stands. 
Fi"om this point it was an unbivken wilderness until we 



38 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

reached the Salt Creek settlement at Richard Wallingford's 
farm, which is located about seven miles south of O Street 
Lincoln on or near the 14th street road leading to Cortland 
and Beatrice. Mr. Donovan lived at the time on what was 
known as the Cardwell farm, on the Creek just a little south 
of the Rock Island bridge. 

Please don't think the Rock Island brid|?e was there 
then. We reached Mr. Donovan's house just as the sun was 
sinking behind the western hills. The sight of the long line 
of timber and the beautiful valley of Salt Creek was enough 
to inspire a "wooden man" and put some life into it. Then 
you may imagine the feelings of one usually enthusiastic 
when something grandly beautiful comes his way. Three 
days were occupied in making this trip, that less ambitious 
people can now make in ninety minutes. Something good to 
eat and a night of rest put us in good plight to visit the 
Basin and see its wonders. JuJy 2nd, 1861, Joseph, the elder 
son of Captain Donovan, was to be our companion and guide. 
The hinder part of an ox wagon with a stiif tongue, a 
couple of tough ash poles fastened to the axle with a short 
board fastened across the ends of them served for a spring 
seat. 

Our carriage was complete. Buck and Bright were hitched 
to this unique vehicle and we started down to Lincoln, 
no! to Lancaster, no, but down Salt Creek (we hardly ever 
go up Salt Creek). We did not land in the Pen as we went 
by. Neither in the Insane Asylum although folks perhaps 
would think us good subjects for an asylum had they seen 
us that morning. The big flies that invested the low bottom 
land acted as persuaders for our oxen and at times our ride 
was most exciting as the oxen would dodge into the brush 
or tall weeds to brush the ugly tlies off their bodies. The 
trail led down the bottom and crossed O st., (to be), about 
where the U.P. palatial depot now graces the valley, and we 
found a ford just by the mouth of Oak Creek. Here was an 
old trail made by Salt Pilgrims in former years, but it was 
nearly overgrown by tall sunflowers. At this time the only 
sign of civilization on the land now covered by fifty thousand 
busy people was two dim trails, one that we were traveling 
which led down the valley to the Morand and Loder settle- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 39 

ments at and below Stevens Creek and one leading eastward 
to Weeping Water. 

Just as we were crossing the western part of the site of 
the future grand city, we had the exciting pleasure of see- 
ing for the first time in life a drove (perhaps thirty or forty) 
of beautiful antelope that were cantering across the prairie 
about where Government Square now is. Their white cotton 
tails shining in the bright sunlight with their curious antics 
were most bewitchingly beautiful. 

One noticeable feature was the splendid grove of majestic 
elms, entersperced with cotton woods and honey locusts. 
Could that grove have been saved, it would now be of ines- 
timable value as a park for the city. 

It brings strange thoughts to mind now after a lapse of 
nearly forty-four years as we heboid the transformation 
wrought by the hand of man. Of the surging throngs that 
gather in those streets, but few can realize what one genera- 
tion of people have accomplished. As we were on the way 
to the Salt Basin we crossed the Creek at the ford and had 
a struggle in making our way through the tall sunflowers 
between the ford and the Basin. But when in full view of 
this wonderland the sight that met our vision was enchant- 
ing. There was a fresh summer breeze that reminded us 
of the breezes along the ocean beach. The great Basin cov- 
ering three or four hundred acres was as smooth as a pane of 
glass and looked just like a vast slab of highly polished 
clouded marble. Theie were two deserted log cabins, one 
with a roof and some one had borrowed the roof of the other. 
They were covered with shakes. Now in this generation 
who knows what shakes are? Well we will tell you, they 
are boards split out of logs from two and one half to three feet 
long. They were sometimes nailed on cross beams and some- 
times weighed down by heavy poles. There were the wrecks 
of some abandoned salt furnaces. Later one of these cabins 
was tenanted by the writer. All was wild and solitary, but 
our soul was filled with rapturous delight. The bracing air 
filled with ozone or salt, we hardly know which. 

The shrill notes of the swarms of wikl geese, brant and 
pellicans all lent a charm. The nearest family was my friend 
Donovan five miles away. 



40 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

We remember the following named families that were 
living in old Lancaster County, viz: Wm. T. Donovan, Joel 
Mason, Richard and Jackson Wallingford, Festus Reed, Dr. 
Maxwell, James Morand and brother, Wm. Shirley, John 
Wedencamp, Chas. Retslaff, J. D. Maine, Aaron Wood, Mr. 
Meecham and Joseph Forest, a bachelor. 

In the south half of Old Clay we found John Cadman, 
Mr. Etherton, J. L. Davison, the Prey families, three fami- 
lies we believe, the old people, John and brother, and Elmer 
Keys. This is all we remember. Then John and Lewis 
Loder lived just across the north line of Lancaster on Salt 
Creek. 

We returned to our home in Nebraska City and made 
preparation to embark in the salt busines to "save our bacon," 
however we did not have much bacon to save, but we had to 
do something to feed the wife and babies. 

We formed a partnership with Darwin Peckham, after- 
wards a prominent citizen of Lincoln for many years where 
his handy-work was manifest in the construction of many 
important buildings, such as the old stone structure on the 
corner of O and tenth street, where Sweet's bank was located. 

On the 2()th of August we landed at the Basin just as a 
rain storm came up to greet us and make it pleasant "you 
know." We camped in the old log cabin and took formal pos- 
session. At this time there were many pilgrims arriving 
and departing. That night we were not sole tenants of the 
cabin. Milton Langdon and another man from Cass. County 
happened there. They were on a hunting expedition. 

Old uncle Dan Morgan from the Blue river country was 
there after salt and right there that stormy night we formed 
two new acquaintances that continued all the remainder of 
their lives. When the morning dawned our company all left 
us and "we were monarch of all we surveyed." The first 
thing in order was to put the cabin in order, so that we could 
batch it there with some comfort. 

We hurriedly made us a salt pan out of sheet iron and 
planks which we brought along and set up a furnace con- 
structed of sod, went to the timber,chopped and hauled a few 
loads of wood and were ready for business. The weather 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 41 

cleared and soon the water became strong, we soon were 
ready to try our hands as manufacturers of salt. 

Manufacturing salt so far away from the markets would 
naturally look like a strange venture. So we will ex- 
plain: 

Salt was scarce and very high all through the west in 
war time. It was gladly taken at the basin by pilgrims at 
two dollars per hundred pounds. Gur customers came from 
afar. The people came by the hundreds all the balance of 
the summer and fall from the river counties, from northwest 
Missouri from Kansas and Iowa. It was the only show to 
get salt. At this time the roads were well broken for there 
was a constant stream of people coming and going. When 
the weather was dry salt would rise to the surface of the 
smooth plain and people could scrape it and gather vas-t 
amounts of it, sometimes a wagon load or mor^^ in a day, but 
just a sprinkle of rain and all was spoiled. Going for salt 
was like going fishing, it was all in luck. Some would 
make a long trip of from one to two hundred miles and just 
get there in time to see a shower ruin all their hopes of salt. 
We "soon caught on," as the saying was, and concluded to 
help these people out and get pay for it. We kept our fur- 
nace running day and night and soon accumulated a little 
stock of salt. Now would come a drove of people, w^hen the 
scraping was good, and they would get a vast amount, more 
crude salt than they could haul. So we would trade them 
fine manufactured salt at $2 per hundred and take their 
scrapings at twenty-five cents per hundred. They w^ould 
go home happy with plenty of scraped salt for the stock and 
plenty of nice salt for their meat and table use. They left 
us happy for we knew it would rain some day wdien the 
other crowd would come and our scraped salt would sudden- 
ly rise to a dollar per hundred. Human nature "you know," 
we had a little corner on sait, that's all. When people came 
and there was no salt to scrape we accommodated people in 
more ways than one. They must have salt and we wanted 
wood so we would hire them to cut and haul and chop wood 
and pay in salt. Salt was "legal tender." Sometimes peo- 
ple would bring their molasses pans, build a furnace and 
boil their ow^n salt, and when they would get tired we would 



42 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

trade them out of their furnace and pans and what wood they 
had on hand, and if any provisions to spare, we would trade 
for that also. We run a regular exchange business. Some 
would bring apples, butter, chickens, a dressed pig, potatoes 
etc. , all to trade for salt. Everything that the farm would 
produce was hauled and exchanged for salt. Soon, hoM'ever, 
we had help. Others came and started business, but the 
crowds increased and we all had plenty to do. Some people 
would make arrangements to rent a furnace of us during a 
night. They would spend the day hauling wood and at 
night would boil salt and get a supply. Any way and every 
way to get some salt. It is amusing at this time to think 
over the trades w^e made. One fellow brought a great tent 
for camping purposes and we traded him out of it. Another 
fellow brought a tine suit of clothes and we took them 
in. One company came from Winterset, Iowa, with tw^o four 
horse teams with live thousand pounds of good Hour, and we 
took it in and gave them pound for pound, or live thousand 
pounds of salt. We w^ere ready to trade for anything but 
yellow dogs. We drew the line on yellow dogs. 

We had some distinguished visitors that fall while we 
were batching. One rainy night Hon. O. P. Mason and 
Hon. J. Sterling Morton were our guests. We gave them 
quarters in our tent and as we were chief cooks of the occa- 
sion we put in our best licks at baking slapjacks for onr 
company. Somehow^ friend Morton was not partial to slap- 
jacks but the distinguished judge ate as if he had been hun- 
gry for a month. The evening was spent in telling spicy 
yarns. We also had a pleasant visit from his excellency, 
Governor Saunders and Hon. P. W. Hitchcock, afterwards 
our United States Senators. In our rough garb as a fron- 
tier salt maker, we seemed in poor plight to properly enter- 
tain such distinguished guests, but we put the best foot for- 
ward. One thing that gives us great satisfaction, the ac- 
quaintances there formed ripened into friendships that 
lasted as long as life remained with these good people. 
Among the many that we met first that fall were the Hon. 
Wm. R. Davis and J. N. Beaty. They, like other pilgrims, 
were hungry for salt. They came and camped perhaps two 
weeks. Little then did we think that our lives for many 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 43 

years would be so closely knit together in building up 
Seward and Seward county. They were then citizens of 
Cass county. 

Late in the fall we moved the family to Salt Creek and 
occupied part of the Donovan mansion on the Cardwell place, 
it being a double log house Of course the salt business 
came to a dead stand-still during the winter and there was 
not much to do, only to prepare wood for fuel. Uncle Dick 
Wallingford somehow learned that we had graduated as 
carpenter and he made an otter to trade a cow for carpenter 
work. So we put in all the good w^eather building him a 
frame house, and thus it came about that we built for him 
the first frame house in Lancaster county in the winter of 
1861 and 1862. 

We made the doors of black walnut lumber that was 
about as hard as glass. We dressed, tongued and grooved 
hard white ash flooring. The building was sided with black 
walnut lumber and shingled with split and shaved walnut 
shingles. We also call to mind that one dark night, Uncle 
Dick coming to our house at th^ Basin and routing us out 
with the sad news that his mother (Grandma Wallingford) 
was dead and requested that we go with him and help make 
a coffin. We had the long tramp in the dark seven miles, 
gathered up the necessary tools, ground them up, and when 
daylight came we went to a pile of this hard walnut lumber, 
made our selections and after breakfast went to work with 
a will and at two p. m. we had a better casket, save the trim- 
mings, than can be purchased of the undertakers now-a-days 
for seventy-five dollars. 

On May 1, 1862, we took our abode at the Basin with 
the good wife and two babes. That same day a county con- 
vention was held at the Basin but we were so busy putting 
our house in order that w^e paid no attention to the proceed- 
ings. We remember, however, that about every man in the 
county was there. Two or three days later Milton Langdon 
and family arrived and located at the smaller Basin, a mile 
or so north and east of us. We had gotten a pretty good 
floor laid in our cabin and a nice coat of whitewash, both 
inside and outside, before Sunday came. 

It was a most beautiful spring Sabbath morning with 



44 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the green grass springing up, tlie merry twittering of the 
birds. We were resting and enjoying ourselves in a lonely 
sort of a way when we caught sight of a gentleman and 
lady coming up the trail from the eastward. They were 
well dressed. We could hardly believe our eyes. Who on 
earth are theyV we said to each other. Well it proved to be 
Mr. Milton Langdon and his excellent wife. They had heard 
of us and had crossed Oak Creek on a foot log and come to 
form our acquaintance. It was like an angel visit. Mrs. 
Langdon and wife were fast friends from that day until 
death separated them twenty-five years later. 

The year 1SH2 was a time of wonderful prosperity at 
the Basin. Throngs of people were coming and going 
constantly and the Basin was a hive of industry. Other 
parties started salt works and many sod houses were built, 
and some made dugouts. It was like a great bee hive. 
Now we must indulge in a little story. There was an old fel 
low named Benj. Vanthusen camping alone and making salt. 
He was sort of a recluse. No body knew where he came from 
or where he went. One day,*in the winter of 1H62-63, a lot of 
Indians were camped not far away, and one young buck was 
strolling around and came to Ben's furnace. He was carry- 
ing a cane in his hand. Ben had become somewhat tired of 
the Indians bothering him in one way and another so he was 
a little ill-natured. The young stalwart approached with 
the usual salutation of "how'' and reached out his cane to 
Ben. Ben reached out to take it when the Indian struck 
him a sharp blow across the knuckles. Ben, quick as thought, 
gave Mr. Injun a blow with the list under the ear that 
landed him backward and he fell on his back into a pan of 
boiling salt. The chap gave a sharp shriek, jumped and 
ran into the swamp yelling all sorts of bloody murder in the 
Indian tongue. He was thoroughly well cooked and salted 
to keep. Other braves came to his rescue and carried him to 
cam]). The little settlement became suddenly alarmed, fear- 
ing that the Indians would be enraged and seek vengeance. 
A hun-iod consultation was had and a committee of citizens 
appointed to visit the camp and learn the temper of the red 
skins. The man was found scalded nigh unto death and 
while the poor creature was writhing with agony the other 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 45 

Indians were pokino^ fun at him and calling him "squaw 
man" and pointing their fingers scornfully at him. Finally 
Ben Vanthusen appeared on the scene and the Indians at 
once began lionizing him as if to further tantalize the poor 
unfortunate. Finally they made a litter out of a buffalo robe 
and carried him away, whether to die or live we know not. 

Now comes the important epoch in the history of Lan- 
caster county, one frought with far reaching results as the 
sequel proves, the founding of Lancaster. 

On the morning of July Fourth, 1H(32, wife suggested 
that we celebrate by gathering a lot of gooseberries, of which 
there were great quantities. Just as we had filled our buck- 
ets, we heard some one hallooing, and as we emerged from 
the brush, who should we see but Elder Young and party, 
consisting of Rev. Peter Schamp, Dr. McKesson, Mr. Warnes, 
Luke Lavender, and Jacob Dawson. They were in search 
of a suitable location for a colony. They were patriotic, and 
had not forgotten the flag. Dinner was quickly provided 
and disposed of, the neighbors called in, and we had a cele- 
bration that was a feast to the sioul. As the dear old elder 
talked to us of our blessed flag, and how it had been trailed 
in the dust by recreant hands, and the mighty struggle that 
was going on to maintain its supremacy, how our hearts 
swelled with emotion as we realized that our country and our 
all was at the moment trembling in the balance. This was 
probably the first time our national flag ever kissed the 
breezes of Lancaster county, and it was an occasion long to 
be remembered by all the participants. 

Some, we know not how many, of that little group have 
gone to their long home. Uncle Jacob Dawson lived just 
long enough to see the foundations of Lincoln well laid, and 
was called away. Our dear old friend. Elder Young, lived 
to see the city of his founding great and strong, and march- 
ing forward to greater achievements, and "he was gathered 
to his fathers full of years and full of honors." 

In the second week in July, and after making a thorough 
examination of the surrounding country, the party made the 
settlement on the land where Lincoln now stands, and dedi- 
cated a portion of section twenty-two for a town site, and 
christened it "Lancaster." 



46 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Lancaster did not grow as more modern towns do. A 
few settlers began to arrive, and settled on the beautiful 
lands in the vicinity, but not many cared to try their hands 
at building a city just then. Town building was a slow 
process in those days so far inland. 

It must be remembered that the bill providing for the 
Union Pacific railroad had passed but the previous winter, 
and the eastern terminus had not been fixed by the president. 
Our nearest railroad was at St. Joseph, Mo., and Ottumwa, 
Iowa. And further it was yet very questionable as to wheth- 
er our upland prairie was of any value for agricultural pur- 
poses. The farms were all yet confined to the creek bottoms. 
Prairie fires would sweep the prairies just as soon as the 
grass was dry in the fall and leave the roots exposed to the 
scorching rays of the autumn sun and then to the frosts of 
winter. The snow would gather into huge drifts, there be- 
ing nothing to hold it except the ravines. This resulted in 
very short grass crops on the upland, and frequently there 
was scarcely grass eaough to hide a garter snake in mid- 
summer. People saw the fact that the prairie produced but 
little grass, but were slow to discover the causes, and were 
ready to condemn the land as worthless for cultivation. 
Some are led to believed that great changes have taken place 
in the general character of tlie soil, as well as in the climate. 
We have frequently been asked if this land was not all cov- 
ered with buffalo grass. To this question we answer most 
emphatically, nc . It might have been at some remote period, 
but never since white men have known it. Many are of the 
opinion that it scarcely ever rained in those early days. 
That is certainly a mistake. The summer of 1860 produced 
scarcely any rain (we well remember the year of the Kansas 
famine; we resided at Nebraska City at the time), and to 
help matters along there were sixteen days and nights of 
continuous hot south wind. It was almost insufferably hot, 
so stifling it was that people could not bear to sit in the winds, 
even late in the evenings, but would be compelled to seek a 
wind- brake. Except that memorable year, rains were just 
as plentiful and as well distributed through the growing 
seasons in those years as now, and vegetation, where it had 
a fair show, made the same luxuriant growth. But we do 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 47 

not wonder that the overland immigrant who passed through 
this country in the early spring or late in the fall pro- 
nounced this a desert land, for as far as the eye could reach, 
in all directions, nothing could be seen but black prairie. 
Most dreary indeed was the spectacle. There being nothing 
to retain the moisture, and the sun bearing down on the de- 
fenseless head, and the mirage playing in the distance like 
some specter, it did not seem that it ever could be a fit abode 
for civilized man. It took men and women of strong nerve 
and great faith to attempt to build a home in this wilderness 
then, but there were some brave souls that were equal to 
the hour, and such were the men who founded Lancaster. 

The story of the founding of the embryo city, and the 
struggle over the location of the county-seat, is an inter- 
esting theme. The settlement of Yankee Hill (where the 
insane hospital now stands), under the leadership of John 
Cadman and Wm. Fields, made an interesting and energetic 
fight for the prize. These men looked with jealously upon 
the Lancaster colony. Our friend Cadman was wide awake, 
and with a fertile brain was ready for almost any emergency. 
It will be remembered that the boundaries of the county 
were materially changed in the winter of lH(3"2-63. Friend 
Cadman secured an election to the legislature from old Clay 
county, John S. Gregory was by some trick of legerdemain 
elected to represent Lancaster, and Hon. H. W. Parker was 
sent from Gage. The trio each had an axe to grind. 
Parker wanted to make the county-seat secure for Beatrice, 
and Cadman w^anted to spoil Elder Young's little game and 
make a new^ town and clothe it with the honors of the 
county-seat. So they arranged and carried through the 
scheme to eliminate Clay county from the map of Nebraska, 
and give to Gage the south twelve miles, and the north 
twelve miles to Lancaster, in the interest of Cadman and 
his friends. Thus it came that Gage and Lancaster are 
each thirty-six miles long, and that Clay county was buried 
out of sight to be resurrected at a later day farther to the 
west. We have never been able to learn just what interest 
our friend Gregory was to have, but suppose he was to be 
endorsed for the post oftice at a salary of one dollar per 
month, and also to have his name perpetuated by re-naming 



48 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the great salt basin "Gregory Basin," both of which he 
secured; but the honors of his office and the name were very 
much hke a soap babble — they got away in a very short time. 
Cadman and his friends lost no time in fixing upon a point 
for their nfew town at Yankee Hill, and then came the tug of 
war. About this time, w^hat w^as known as the steam wagon 
road, was located from Nebraska City to the west, and cross- 
ing the Salt creek fixed at Yankee Hill. x\n appropriation 
of live hundred dollars was secured by the legislature for a 
bridge on Salt creek in Lancaster county, to be located by 
territorial commissioners. When these gentlemen came to 
fix the location of the bridge, the Lancaster party, headed 
by Elder Young, and the Yankee Hill folks, led by Cadman, 
each made an earnest showing why they should have the 
bridge, and we take it for granted that each succeeded in 
convincing the commissioners that their claim was the best, 
for they divided the money between the two points, and thus 
with the aid of private help, two good bridges were secured. 

Each ijlace made slow progress; a little store and a 
blacksmith shop were secured by each. Lancaster had the 
help of the salt interest to assist it, while its rival had the 
freight road. Each had energetic men as leaders, and they 
were equally as well situated, but Lancaster had the sym- 
pathy of the greater number of the people of the county. 
Friend Chadman had aroused the ire of all his old neighbors 
on the head of Salt creek. They were very sore over hav- 
ing all of their pleasant dreams of a county seat at Olathe 
suddenly vanish, and their county disappear, or torn in two 
and swallowed up by her greedy sisters. When the county 
seat problem came before people for settlement, the Lan- 
caster folks had a walkaway, and secured a grand triumph 
at the polls. 

This county seat election occured in the autum of 1^!(54 
and was held at the house of the writer, just south of the 
Great Basin. 

Notwithstanding his defeat in his pet project of found- 
ing a county seat, Cadman secured a return to the legisla- 
ture for several terms and had an honorable part in mould- 
ing the destiny of the county, in helping to secure the cap- 
ital removal bill, and securing the location of it within her 



HISTORY OF SEWAlin COUNTY, NEBRASKA 49 

bordei's; and while Elder J. M. Youn^ may justly be honored 
as the founder of Lincoln, to John Cadman belongs the hon- 
or of doing splendid work in securing a grand triumph in 
removing the capital and securing the principal benefits to 
his county; and while he did not realize the full fruition of 
his hopes in getting it at Yankee Hill, we are glad to know 
that he has been duly rewarded, and that in his green old 
age he was blessed with plenty of this world's goods, and 
friends innumerable to brighten his pathway. Long live 
the memory of Hon. John Cadman! 

In the early summer of 1862, we had the pleasure of 
helping to raise a log house for Charlie Calkins, on Middle 
Creek, on what was afterwards known as the Horton farm, 
and about five miles west of the city. This was the first log 
cabin between the Basin and the Grand Island settlement. 

In the beautiful month of June our good wife made a 
visit to Nebraska City, and left us alone "with our glory" 
for a little season-. One afternoon a throng of Omahas camped 
at the head of the Basin, but we thought nothing of it as it 
was a common thing to see a great number of Indians on their 
way to the summer hunting grounds on the Republican 
river. John Chambers' family lived a little way from our 
cabin. We went to bed as usual that night, with our bright 
saber under our pillow, and a rifle standing within easy 
reach. Near midnight we heard a (not very) "gentle tap- 
ping, as of some one rapping at our cabin door." "What's 
the matter?"' we cried, "Matter enough," says poor tremb- 
ling John, his wife clinging to him like grim death, and 
crazed with fear, "the Indians are upon us. For God's sake 
what shall we do?" Whether we dressed or not, you may 
guess. We forgot that we ever had a saber or a gun. When 
we awoke our ears were greeted with the most unearthly 
sounds, as if ten thousand devils were turned loose. We all 
run, as most folks do when badly scared, and we hid as best 
we could among the hills and awaited the coming of events, 
which we expected every minute. The pandemonium con- 
tinued, but came no nearer. We waited patiently for the 
enemy, but they did not come. We were disappointed. The 
Indians were expecting to meet their mortal foes (the Sioux) 



50 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

on their hunting grounds, and were having a war dance. 
"Only this, and nothing more." 

Salt creek and its principal tributary, Oak creek, were 
wonderfully well supplied with fish. Black suckers and buf- 
falo were the leading varieties. The settlers had plenty of 
sport and much profit in fishing. We all had plenty of fish. 
Great numbers were caught that would weigh ten to fifteen 
pounds, and we have seen them that tipped the beam at thir- 
ty-five pounds. 

Elk and antelope were plentiful, and the nimrods of that 
day had great and exciting sport in the chase. Some of the 
settlers spent a great portion of their time roaming the prai- 
ries in search of game. Many of them never came home 
without a supply of meat. If elk could not be found or capt- 
ured, some luckless freighter's steer had to sufl'er the ordeal 
of being converted into elk meat. Many a steer has under- 
gone the change in short order, and Mr. Steer's only safety 
was in staying close to camp. The Basin was a great place 
for wild water fowls to congregate. Geese, brant, swan, 
ducks, and pelicans were there by the thousands, and it was 
the hunter's paradise. Wild fruits, such as grapes, plums, 
gooseberries, and alderberries, were abundant along the 
streams, and were gathered by the bushel. 

As the Union armies regained the rebel strongholds of 
Missouri, great numbers of rebels found it convenient to find 
other quarters, and many of them seemed to have the idea 
that salt would save their bacon, consequently hordes of them 
would congregate at the Basin, and frequently they would 
show their rebellious s]3irit in acts and words that it was very 
unpleasant for Union men to endure. At one time they be- 
came so insolent and threatening that the Union men of the 
valley thought it necessary to organize for self-defense. Our 
Mis.souri friends came to the wise conclusion that "discretion 
was the better part of valor," so nothing very serious oc- 
curred. 

Elder Young preached the first sermon of the locality at 
our house, on the Sabbath following the 4th of July, 1862, 
to a fair-sized congregation. A Sabbath school was organ- 
ized very soon afterwards, and was of great value to the youth 
of the little community. This was the first Sunday school 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 51 

between the Missouri river and the mountains. Religious 
services were held quite frequently under the leadership of 
Elder Young, Rev. Dr. McKesson, and Rev. Peter Schamp, 
and other ministers that chanced to stray so fai' into the wild- 
erness. 

As a general rule the settlers enjoyed themselves very 
well, and were reasonably prosperous, but it was not always 
so. Sometimes winter storms would shut us off from com- 
munication with the world at large, and provisions would get 
short, and we would be driven to desperate straits. We have 
known families to live on boiled corn or wheat for a week at 
a time with no seasoning but salt. The winter of 1863-4 was 
a most desperate one. The cold was extreme. The last 
day of December, 1863, was a memorable day for the intensity 
of the cold. We had no thermometer except our own blood, 
and that told us that it was the most bitterly cold of any day 
of our life. We afterwards learned that at Burlington, Iowa, 
the thermometer indicated thirty degrees below zero. 

That winter was one of much suffering. Salt had de- 
clined materially in price, and the demand had fallen off; 
while wood for boiling it had become scarce, and the weath- 
er was so severe that it seemed as if all things conspired 
against the people, and for a time the whole settlement was 
on the verge of starvation. The spring of 1864 found the 
settlement in rather a dilapidated and impoverished condition, 
but hope soon revived. Immigrants began to arrive in good- 
ly numbers and began opening up farms, and that gave new 
life and hope to all. Settlements began to extend westward, 
and all the people began to have more faith in Nebraska. It 
may be well here to relate a common saying of those days, 
just to show how absurd the expressed views of many people 
were in regard to this country. 

If an incoming immigrant talked of going over to the Blue 
valley to look for a location, he was told at once that it was of 
no use to look at that country, for it never rains west of Salt 
creek. That fool notion had become so thoroughly embed- 
ded in the minds of numy of the early settlers that we expect 
some of them lirmly believe it to this day. 

It has been claimed that F. Morton Donovan was the first 
white child born in this locality, but this locality was rather 



52 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

large, for the fact is he was born on Stevens creek, ten miles 
distant. The first white child born at the Basin, or in the im- 
mediate vicinity of the present city, was a son born to Joseph 
Chambers in the winter of 1862-3. He died in infancy. Our 
son, Elmer Ellsworth Cox, was born March 3, 1863, and was 
the first white child born in the immediate vicinity who 
lived to become a man. 

There were some exciting and almost ludicrous scenes in 
the courts at the Basins. Milton Langdon and J. S. Greg- 
ory were the two prominent attorneys, and in all matters of 
a judicial nature they were arrayed against each other. They 
were both keen and tricky, ever on the alert to catch the 
enemy napping, and they had some high old times. Occa- 
sionally a case would arise that tried the mettle of the court, 
attorneys, and officers. A rough customer, who it was said 
had graduated in the rebel army, put in an appearance, and 
made some violent threats, in which he promised to kill some 
citizen. An information was filed, and a warrant was issued 
and placed in the hands of the sheriff. A crowd gathered at 
the court-room, and it soon became known that the culprit 
refused to surrender to the sheriff. All became excited, and 
■v^hile the court was giving some directions to the citizens 
about assisting the sheriff, the fellow came stalking into 
the court-room, carrying his rifle in a position for immediate 
use. The sheriff followed at a convenient distance of prob- 
ably ten rods. The court invited the man to take a seat, 
which was promptly declined, but he took a careful survey 
of the court and all the surroundings, and with the rifle ready 
cocked and finger on the trigger, he began a retreat, and all 
hands seemed ready to stand out of his way. The justice 
remarked to the sheriff and posse, "You will be justified in 
taking that man, if you have to kill him to do it," but they' 
didn't take him; he backed off with drawn weapon, and bid 
defiance, and no one was willing to take tlie risk of his capt- 
ure. He was bent on vengeance, and had no intention of 
leaving until he had wreaked it on somebody. He became 
angry at the justice for saying take him dead or alive, and 
during the next morning, while his honor was busy at his 
salt furnace, he happened to observe the sneaking scoundrel 
creeping up a small ravine in the rear, with a view of getting 



HISTORY OF SEWAKD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 53 

a sure shot at him, but tinding that his victim had observed 
him, he started oft" at a rapid pace across the basin. His 
honor quickly halted him. He instantly cocked his ritie, but 
sternly and most emphatically his honor commanded a truce, 
and marched straight up to the fellow, who curled down like 
a whipped cur, received a court blessing in the open air, and 
then took his tinal departure to parts unknown. Had it not 
been for a good degree of firmness on that occasion, it is 
quite probable that some other writer would have had the 
honors of writing this book. 

On the morning of August 20, 1862, there was a heavy 
frost, which killed all the corn on the lowlands throughout 
Nebraska. 

During the spring of 1863, J. S. Gregory built the first 
frame house in the locality of the Basin, and made quite ex- 
tensive improvements. Mr. Eaton, of Plattsmouth, an uncle 
of our friend Gregory, became quite well acquainted with 
him during these years, and their fraternal relations are 
spread upon the court records of Lancaster county for many 
years. 

Settlements increased rapidly during the spring and 
early summer of 1864, but took a serious set-back later in the 
season, on account of the Indian troubles, so that the num- 
ber wintering here in the winter of 1864-5 was hardly greater 
than in the winter previous. 

That memorable day, November .s, 1864, when Lincoln 
was elected the second time, the good people of Nebraska 
could take no hand in the game, but the people of Lancaster 
had to do something, and if they could not vote, they could, 
and did hold district court. We do not forget that we had 
that day a genuine old-time blizzard of drifting snow. 
There was no discount on that blizzard. It was cold enough 
for the Klondike, and the whirling snow was terrific. It 
will be remembered that the county seat was located at the 
October election, and at the same time Jacob Dawson was 
elected county clerk, and that meant district clerk as well. 
Uncle Jake, as we called him, wanted something to do as 
clerk. So he set to work to have a term of court at the new 
county seat. They did not yet have that big stone court 
house but Uncle Jake was a man ready for any emergency. 



54 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

He had a double log house, that would do for a hotel, family 
residence and court house combined. 

Uncle Jake gOL into correspondence with Hon. Judge 
Elmer S. Dundy and gave the judge some pointers. He 
made the judge understand that there was an emergency 
case on docket and that a court must be held. One Pem- 
berton, a sojourner at the Basin, had gotten in trouble with 
old man Burd about the depredation of some unruly chickens. 
The families had quarreled. At a very early hour one morn- 
ing Pemberton appeared at the cabin of Mr. Burd with a re- 
volver, ready for business. Some hot words passed, when 
Pemberton struck the old man on the head with the revolver 
then fired the revolver, the ball passing through the thin 
door, lodging in the wall of the room just over the bed where 
the young Burds were sleeping. A few minutes later, when 
the justice of the peace (who lived only a few rods distant) 
was being seated at the breakfast table with his little 
family, Mr. Burd appeared with blood streaming down over 
his face and a little x^anic occured just then and the break- 
fast lost its tiavor. A warrant was hastily issued and put 
into sheriff Chambers' hands, and the culprit was arraigned. 
An exciting examination resulted in Pemberton being 
bound over to court on charge of malicious assault with in- 
tent to commit great bodily injury. In preparation for the 
court a grand jury and also a petit jury had been summoned 
and it took about every eligible citizen in Lancaster county. 
Tw^o distinguished barristers had accompanied the judge 
from Plattsmouth. Neither judge or lawyers rode on passes 
then, but were content with an opportunity to ride on asses 
—that is, if the asses were to be had. The Hon. T. M. 
Marquet and Judge Pottenger were the gentlemen that 
helped the august judge in giving dignity to the court. Pott, 
as we called him, got the whi])row of Marquet and secured 
the appointment as prosecuting attorney, but Pemberton 
was ready to give Marquet a job, but was lather short. A 
ten-dollar greenback was the sum total of his cash and Mar- 
quet had to take that or go without a job. He took the 
greenback, of course. 

The grand jury was duly sworn and after examining 
the justice docket and interviewing several witnesses, they 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 55 

presented a true bill against defendant, and Pott framed the 
indictment in his strongest language. It sounded like a form- 
idable document, but Marquet got hold of it and after reading 
it over fi-om left to right and from right to left a few times 
there didn't seem much left of it, and the judge very reluct- 
antly pronounced it a failure and befoie the court had time 
to give any further orders, Mr. Pemberton disappeared in 
the storm and has not been heard of since that memorable 
day. 

The court allowed Lancaster county to draw its first 
warrant to Judge Pottenger for $76 and adjourned until 
warm weather. Thus ended the first term of the district 
court of Lancaster county, November 8, 1864. 

In the summer of 1864, the whole West was very easily 
excited after the horrible massacre in Minnesota. Wild 
rumors were afloat continually, and the scattered settlements 
were harassed with fears throughout the whole summer and 
fall. The most trifling circumstances were magnified as 
they were related by the panic stricken people into general 
massacres, or wholesale slaughtering of some neighboring 
settlement. The impression i^revaled that the rebel govern- 
ment at Richmond was inciting the red-skins to a merciless 
warfare all along the frontier. Tomahawks and scalping 
knives of the red devils were vividly pictured in all our 
dreams. We knew this much, that the dark hours of the 
war presented a grand opportunity for them to clean us 
out, root and branch. We also knew that they were in no 
friendly mood; or, in other words, we were quite sure they 
were thirsting for our blood, all that kept them back was 
their fear of a terrible retribution, and further, the fire we 
saw was not all fox fire. There were people murdered by 
them in Nebraska, and not a few. At Plum creek of the 
west, on Turkey creek, on the Little Blue, there were mur- 
ders and kidnapping, such as make our blood boil to this 
day as we think of them. We had just cause to fear, and it 
would have been foolhardiness to be otherwise than on the 
alert. 

On one occasion, when the writer was at Nebraska City 
with a load of salt, we had arranged to help Jacob Dawson 
haul a steam saw-mill out from Little Wyoming, which was 



56 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

a few miles north of the city. While we were yet loading the 
boiler, word was current that there had been murders at 
Plum creek. Now there were two Plum creeks, and we all 
feared it might be the Plum creek in Seward county. How- 
ever, it proved to be the other. But it answered the purpose 
of getting up a big scare. We were uneasy and hurried up 
all we could with loads. We reached Stove creek ranch, 
thirty miles east of salt basin, that night at about eleven 
o'clock, and had it not been that we dare not attempt the 
crossing in the night we probably would have traveled all 
night. In the morning it was raining and we could not 
cross until about noon. We were eating dinner when we 
saw a long train of teams coming over the hills from the 
west. We knew mischief was to pay. W^e hailed the first 
to a]3proach us to learn what we could. 

"Oh, all the people on Blue river are killed, and all the 
settlements of Salt creek have tied from their homes and 
are at Shirley's ranch on Steven's creek." "Do you know 
anything about my family," asked the writer hurriedly, 
"Yes, they are at Shirley's ranch with the rest." Hurrah, 
boys, now for the Shirley ranch on a double quick. 

We tumbled the engine out of one wagon, unhitched 
from the boiler and put four yoke of oxen on an empty wag- 
on, and if ever oxen traveled it was there and then. 

There were four of us, and we took turns whipping ,and 
the wonder is that we did not kill the oxen, for it was ex- 
tremely hot. We reached the ranch just after dark, and a 
motley crew we found; at least a hundred people were there, 
men, women, and children. They were well over their scare 
but were well along in the mad state. Everybody was cross 
almost to ugliness. Shirley had built a new house but had not 
moved into it. This was stowed full both above and below. 
His old house was full and his yard was full. The clothing 
was all wet and also the bedding. Many were suffering with 
hunger. We found wife and babes stowed away up-stairs 
in a bed that was wet as wet could be. The story of their 
panic was told, and was as follows: The night before, word 
came to the neighborhood that the settlement on the Blue 
were all murdered, and to all appearances the red-skins 
would bounce on the Salt creek settlers that night; it was 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 57 

then nearly dark; wife and children were at the mercy of 
some good neighbor, as they had no team. Uncle Peter 
Bellows came nobly to the rescue. With his broad German 
accent he said, "Mrs. Coax, you shall go wid us." Blessed 
be the name of Uncle Peter forever! But Uncle Peter had 
his peculiarities. He was a great hand to gather up things, 
such as old log chains, old plow shares, broken pitchforks, 
horseshoes (he hadn't a horse in the world), ox yokes and 
all sorts of old irons; he was rich in old irons. Well, in 
packing u]) to go, Uncle Peter had to take the last one of 
his old irons, but in his hurry he forgot to take any provi- 
sions for his family. When he comes for wife, he says, 
"Mrs. Coax, ve takes you and de childerns, but ve can't take 
noting else; vel dot is so, hurry up. Mine Cot, the Ingins is 
coming shure enough. " 

Wife protested that she must take something to eat and 
some bedding, and finally jjersuaded him to take a sack (50 
lbs.) of flour and a ham of meat and a bed, if she would 
walk herself. We then had three children, aged respective- 
ly, a girl five years, a girl three years, and a boy sixteen 
months old. 

The oldest girl walked, the second one was perched up 
on the load of goods; wife carried the babe on her right arm 
and with the left she carried one end of a trunk a mile 
and a half. The babe, she carried the full ten miles that 
dark, stormy night. Wild with fright they went p^ll-mell. 
Imagine, if you can, the terrors of that awful night ^the 
rolling thunder, the lurid lightning, with a mortal ilread of 
the savage foe. Weary and fainting, they arrived at the 
ranch late in the night. In the morning it developed that 
that sack of flour and ham of meat were all the provisions 
in camp for a hundred hungry souls, except some green corn 
purchased of Shirley. But they had plenty of old irons. 

It further developed that there were no hostile Indians 
within less than a hundred miles. By the morning after we 
arrived in camp the panic had entirely subsided and all were 
ready to return to their homes. 

Within the following two weeks things were (luiet. The 
writer had a quantity of salt that it was necessary to haul to 
market. Our bread and butter for the coming winter de- 



58 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

pened on it. It was perilous to leave. It was certain starva- 
tion to stay at home. We must go and take our chances. 

One bfi«i-ht summer afternoon we made ready with a big 
load oi' salt and started lor Nebraska City, arrived at Wood's 
ranch at night, turned the oxen out to grass, ate su])per and 
went to bed. Near midnight, Dr. Crimm, wife, and her sis- 
ter, came as if Satan was after them. "Tlie Indians are upon 
us sure enough this time," they, shouted. "You must go 
for your wife and little ones or they will all be slaughtered." 
All was wild excitement. The writer was somewhat in- 
credulous, but standing between doubt and fear, there was 
only one course to take. We must lly to the rescue. We 
hastily hitched up old "Nig" and "Darb,"and went on the 
dead run for home. Just as the morning light was breaking 
we pas;5ed Uncle Jake Dawson's cabins, standing on the 
ground now occupied by Commercial block. There was a 
sleep-and-go-easy sort of fellow by the name of Jolm Giles 
in the neighborhood at the time. John was standing sentinel 
at the west end of the cabin. We hailed him and asked what 
was the matter, rather derisively. We were somewhat pro- 
voked at what we thought to be a useless scare. He sharply 
retorted, "You'll find out before you get to the Basin." We 
went on feeling that it was another sell out. When we reach- 
ed home we found everything in dire confusion. Many had 
left and all the balance were hurriedly preparing for flight. 
In the anguish of despair we said, "Wife, what shall wedoV" 
She answered, "I will stay if others would stay, but we can't 
stay if the place is deserted by all the neighbors." A hur- 
ried consultation resulted in this, that w^e w^ould all go to the 
river with the salt and remain there until matters had be- 
come settled. 

Uncle Pete here appears on the scene again. Wife had 
gone over the hill to drive up the cow that we might take 
her, while we were busy loading up our bed • clothing and 
provisions. We were talking over the situation, when all of 
a sudden several Indians put in an appearance. They were 
some twenty rods distant when first discovered. We were 
just then sorry for our incredulity. The dread moment had 
come, we said to ourselves. Uncle Pete started on the double 
quick, but we commanded him to face about and dance to 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 59 

whatever music miyht come. "'It's too late to run," we said, 
and at the same moment we jumped into the road ahead of 
the red-skins, and commanded a halt. 

The leader pulled out a dirty white rag- and bej^an swinge- 
ing it and hallooing that, "Me good Ingin," ''me good Omaha," 
"me no Sioux. '' Oh, how our hearts fluttered just then. The 
Indians were about as much frightened as we were; they 
knew the people were wonderfully excited. "Me good Omaha' ' 
was sweet music in our ears just then. We loaded up our 
little stutf, tied the old cow behind the wagon, loaded on the 
children, and pushed out for the river, leading almost a* for- 
lorn hope. The load of salt was left at Wood's ranch. 
When we had piled our beds, provisions, and children on top 
of a huge load of salt we must have presented a grotesque 
spectacle. It was no laughing matter then, but now it's no 
matter if you laugh. Suffice it to say we were welcomed by 
our friends in Nebraska City just as cordially as if we had 
ridden in a gilded carriage to their door. 

When it became certain that the Union would triumph 
over the rebellion and there would be ample security here as 
elsewhere for life and ijroperty, then great numbers came. 
Also a further stimulus to settlement was the certainty of the 
building of the Union Pacific R. R. Its eastern terminus 
had been fixed in the fall of 1864, and the first ground was 
broken, and it may fairly be said that Nebraska had awaken- 
ed to a new and vigorous life. During the spring of I^io4, 
having become convinced that it occasionally rained on Blue 
river, we made up our mind to cast our lot with the little 
settlement in the neighborhood where now^ stands the beau- 
tiful litde city of Seward, and made preparation daring the 
summer, accomplished our object, and made the removal 
December 1st. 

Thus ends our immediate connection with the struggling 
pioneers of Lancaster county, and there it begins with these 
of Seward county. 

Of those good old days of pioneer life we have many, 
yea very many, pleasant recollections. There were some 
dark clouds overspreading our skies at times, but every cloud, 
let it be never so dark, "had its silver lining." 

Friendships there sprang up that will remain true so 



60 HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

long as life shall last. To have been a pioneer in Nebraska 
in helping- to open the way of civilization, we consider an 
honor, and looking back through the years — years of pleas- 
ant sunshine and prosperity, years of dark clouds, of danger 
and adversity, we rejoice that we came to Nebraska and 
helped to lay the foundations of the mighty commonwealth — 
"our own, our loved Nebraska." 

There were quite a number of the early settlers that 
should have honoi'able mention in these reminiscences, and 
we can hard ly forego the pleasure of mentioning some of them. 

•J. N. Beaty and Wm. R. Davis spent part of the autumn 
of 1861 making salt. These gentlemen had the honor of 
opening the tirst store at Seward as is especially noted in 
another chapter. For many years they were quite promi- 
nent in business circles in this county. Mr. Beaty removed 
many years ago to Osage, Kansas, and later to Oklahoma 
City and was engaged in the hardware business. He has 
now gone to his long home. Mr. Davis remained in active 
life in Seward until he was summoned home in the summer 
of 1899, full of years and full of honors. 

Hon. Wm. Imlay conducted the salt business at the lit- 
tle Basin near the point where the B. & M. track crosses the 
U. P. track north of Oak creek He became one of the very 
first to make a settlement at the Seward settlement in the 
spring of 186-1. Here he remained on the old homestead un- 
til his work was finished and he was called home in the sum- 
mer of 1H96. John S. Gregory located on the north side of 
the basin in the fall of 1862, and for a time cut quite a figure 
both in business and political affairs. He was naturally a 
hustler and a schemer, and we believe he had a little more 
"brass" in his face than any other character on the frontier. 
He had formed a partnership with an old "uncle by the 
name of Eaton who had some money which he exchanged 
for experience in the salt business. Gregory & Co, put up 
quite expensive works, built (juite a large frame house (the 
first at the basin) and with all cut quite a figure as long as 
Eaton's money lasted. Mr. G. secured a post office and had 
it named Gregory Basin, and so pulled the wires that he 
was nominated for the legislative honors and was elected. 
He told some awiui wolf stories which the wolves had no 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 61 

part in. Mr. G. took a hand in despoiling- old Clay county. 
His name did not stick to the Basin worth a cent, and his 
post office was of short duration. Mr. Greo;ory, we under- 
stand, is now a resident of Galveston, Texas. 

Milton Lanj^don, known in his days as our walking en- 
cyclopedia, was in the salt business from 1S62 to 1804, when 
he became treasurer of Lancaster county. Some years 
later he took up his residence in the northeast part of Sew- 
ard county and engaged in the lime business. Both he and 
his noble wife have passed over the dark river. 

Dr. John Crimm and his wife's brother, Mr. Diers of 
Brownville, conducted quite extensive works in 1S64, and 
tried the manufacture with solar heat, but somehow it 
proved a failure. 

There are many more men that were interested in these 
early developments whom we would like to mention. One 
sad feature about these little stories of our frontier life and 
experiences is, nearly all the actors have gone to their long 
home. In counting over the long list of names mentioned 
in this long chapter, from start to finish, we know of but 
three, besides myself, that remain on this mundane sphere, 
viz: Peter Scham]5 of Lincoln, A. J. Wallingford in north- 
west Nebraska, and J. S. Gregory. It seems that we are 
almost alone to tell the story of our ventures, of our mis- 
takes and our triumphs. It seems but yesterday as we look 
back across the vista of years since the scenes herein related 
occurred. But when we happen to look into the glass and 
behold the individual, who was then in the prime of young 
manhood with the little children around our knees now an 
old man carrying a load of three .score and twelve years, 
with one child that is a grandparent, with a new generation 
of people all around; then again as we view the wonderful 
transformation that has been wrought in converting the des- 
ert wastes of wilderness into fruitful farms and the building 
of a thousand cities on the land of the Indian and buffalo, 
with a thousand iron steeds hauling the commerce of two 
continents past our door, with the news of the day riding on 
the wings of the lightning, w'ith a telephone in every w^ell 
ordered household and a mail box at every door, with the 
darkness of the night lighted bj' the heavenly torch harnessed 



62 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

by the hand of man; as we stand dazed by the darting 
of the swift winged chariots hither and thither with nothing 
to push or pull, but going "all the same;" as the bicycle 
whirls past bearing its burden of human freight, and as the 
automobile goes thundering through the street, we are 
sometimes led to wonder if we are really in a dream land, in 
another and grander world, or is it for a fact that these 
things have all come to pass in our short life time. From 
the fullness of heart we may exclaim with prophet of old, 
"Our light has come and the glory of God has risen upon 
our land." 



CHAPTER TV. 



Historic letters — Hon. Pai^l Morton's early freighting — Extracts from 
Rev. Byron Beall's Scrap book — Dr. G. L. Miller's "Fifty Years 
Ago" — Letter from Moses — Father of Arbor Day, and tablet with 
memorial address — Historic Sketches of Governors John M. Thayer 
and R. W. Furnas, also of Rev. J. M. Young. 



EARLY FREIGHTING ACROSS THE PLAINS 

BY HON. PAUL MORTON 

NOW SECRETARY OF THE U. S. NAVY, WASHINGTON, D. C. 

Washington, D. C, Nov. 28, 1904. 
Dear Mr. Cox: — 

I happen to be one of the young men who did not take 
Horace Greeley's advice and go west. I arrived there ahead 
of his advice, and long before the steel rail. I was brought 
up on the w^st bank of the Missouri river in the Territory of 
Nebraska. My earliest recollections of transportation is in 
the days before the Union Pacific was built, when I saw- 
trains of from twenty to sixty wagons each drawn by six 
yoke of oxen, leaving Nebraska City, headed for Denver, 
Salt Lake City, or "Pike's Pealv or bust." Not a few of 
them reached the last destination. Those were the good old 
days of the overland stage and the bull team. A wagon load 
was about three tons. The rates of freight for short hauls 
were generally computed at one cent per pound per hundred 
miles; but at variance with modern practice, for longer dis- 
tances the rates were increased. Any shipper could under- 
stand the tariff. The rates were as follows from the river 
to Denver: 

Flour, 9 cts. per pound. 

Tobacco, 12i cts. per pound. 

Sugar, 13i- cts. per pound. 

Bacon, 15 cts. per pound. 

Crackers, 17 cts. per pound. 

Whiskey, 18 cts. per pound. 

Trunks, 25 cts. per pound. 

Furniture, 31 cts. per pound. 



64 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

These were bull train rates, and by mule train rates 
they were doubled. It is remarkable how the Rocky Moun- 
tain country could atford to pay such rates; but the vast 
mineral wealth of the country enabled it to do so. I think 
they were fully as well satisfied with those rates as they are 
now with rates approximating): less than one-fiftieth of what 
they were. 

There ox teams would swing- along the old California 
trail which passed by my father's house under the direct 
charge of the boss who generally rode a fine horse and who 
was the division superintendent of that period. 

The drivers, or "bull whackers" as they were called, 
seemed to enjoy themselves mightily, and were generally 
yelling or singing. As a rule they enjoyed the best of 
health. They walked by the side of their teams, for it was 
impossible to ride and keep the teams moving regularly. 
The average speed of these trains of prairie schooners load- 
ed and under full sail, was nearly fifteen miles per day, al- 
though in tine weather and with excellent roads twenty miles 
was occasionally made. 

I remember distinctly the great steam wagon which 
was brought west to revolutionize the freighting business 
and to take the place of oxen. It was regarded by all the 
nations with even more curiosity than the modern gasoline 
racer now creates where it has never before been seen. The 
steam wagon resembled somewhat the modern traction en- 
gme only it was much larger. Had it been preserved instead 
of dismantled and sold for scrap iron, it would have been an 
interesting curio for exhibition. The family of the owner of 
the machine was massacred by the Indians and he left the 
machine standing on my father's farm for a number of 
years. It started west in about 1S64 with about ten wagon 
loads of freight. You will notice it was one hundred and 
twenty ox power. It did fairly well for about five miles and 
then failed. The failure was due to too much weight per ox 
power, and also too much weight for the small bridges on the 
trail. It was the first real engine failure of western trans- 
portation, and the failure was complete. The failure of that 
steam wagon to do its work over prairie roads emphasized 
the necessity of steel rails. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 65 

An old time song of the plains, which became very pop- 
ular was, "Root Hog or Die." The boys used to make the 
welkin ring with old songs. Here it is: 

ROOT HOG OR DIE 

I'll tell you how it, is when you first get on the ro;id: 
You've trot an awkward team and a very heavy load! 
You've grot to whip and holler, if you swear it's on the sly— 
So punch your team along boys and root hog or die. 

Oh it's every day at noon there's something to do; 
And if there is nothing else, there'll be an ox to shoe. 
So with a rope you throw him, and there you make him lie. 
Till you tack on the shoes, boys, root hog or die. 

Oh there's many strange sights to be seen along the road. 
The antelope, the deer, the great big sandy toad. 
The buffalo, the elk, the rabbits jump .so high. 
With all the bloody Indians too— root hog or die. 

Times on Bitter Creek, they never can be beat; 

Root hog or die i.^S on ever.v wagon sheet — 

The sand within your throat, the dust within your eyes; 

We are tough and we can stand it too— root hog or die. 

We arrived in Denver on the 2.5th of June, 
The people were surprised to see us come so soon! 
But we are brave bull whackers on whom you can rely. 
To bend our backs and stand it too—root hog or die. 

These stalwart men of the plains were a good natured 
crowd. They went forth to their work and adventures as if 
they were going to a picnic, and many of them met a fate 
never to return. They had all kinds of trouble to overcome. 
The question of feed and water for the stock was a most 
difficult one. They could not take supplies with them, so 
they had to select a route where the grass and water were 
good. 

The firm of Majors, Russell & Waddell, probably the 
largest single firm of overland freighters, owned at one time 
six thousand wagons and seventy-five thousand oxen. It 
was no small job to look after such a caravan as that, as in 
one train their outfit was estimated to reach forty miles in 
length. 

Wood was scarce and hard to get. At certain points on 
the Platte river it was sold at fifty dollars per cord. Had it 
not been for bufl'alo chips for cooking purposes, the wood 
supply would have been still more of a problem. 

Then there was the gentle savage abroad in the land, 
the original scalpers in the transportation business. They 



66 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

had to be reckoned with, and rates fluctuated more or less 
with their behavior. Besides the Indians, there were vast 
herds of bufl'alo, the bad weather, and an occasional rattle 
snake bite to kill a man or a steer. Those men of our early 
transportation had their difficulties just as we have now. 
They had the Pawmee instead of the Populist; the Sioux in- 
stead of the walking delegate: and the rattlesnake in place 
of the demagogue. I am not sure but they had the best of 
us. 

In those days they had their fast and slow trains. Six 
horse or mule stages was the rapid transit a generation ago, 
and without any baggage except hand baggage. They were 
glad to accommodate you or your friends at the rate of twenty- 
five cents per mile per passenger — owner's risk of scalp. 
The pony express was the fast mail, and the six horse stage 
was the limited with no rebate for delays. The stage ride 
and driver were more popular than the stage eating house. 
The facilities for marketing and the high freight rates made 
a limited bill of fare. Dried apple pie was a continuous per- 
formance. As one of the stage drivers expressed it, "it was 
dried apple pie from Genesis to Revelations." The following 
lyric poem written by a regular passenger and scattered 
broadcast along the line changed the bill of fare so that for 
a while they only served the pie Sundays and holidays. 

DRIED APPLE PIE, 

I loathe, abhor, detest, despise. 
Abominate dried apple pies. 
I like sood bread. «ood meat 
Or anythintr that's good to eat. 
But of all poor grub beneath the skies 
The poorest is dried apple pies. 
Give me a toothache or sore eves 
In preference to such kinds of pies. 

The farmer takes his earliest fruit, 
'Tis wormy, bitter, and hard to boot. 
They leave the coi'es to make us coutrh. 
And don't take half the peeling's off; 
Then on a dirty cord are strung. 
And from some chamber window hung; 
And there they sei've a roost for flies. 
Until they're i-eady to make pies! 
Ti-ead on my corns or tell me lies. 
But don't pass to me di-ied apple pies, 

A story is told of a Pittsburg man who dined at one of 
these eating houses and was served- with a slice of fat pork. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 6T 

He remarked, "I never eat pork." "Very well," said the 
bland waiter, "help yourself to the mustard." Pork, mus- 
tard and dried apple pie was the bill of fare at that house. 

I am glad that I am owner of one of those old coaches. 
My brother and I have the *one that Mark Twain, Generals 
Sherman and Sheridan rode in part way across the plains. 
It is the identical coach that was attacked in the Blue valley 
during the last Indian raid in that region. It was formerly 
known as Ben Holliday's private coach, and was the pala- 
tial private car of that era. Mr. Holliday was the owner of 
the stage line. 

Have you ever thought how in one generation of man 
the abridgment of distance has been accomplished? Today 
with great luxury and ease and at a rate of less than three 
cents a mile you may achieve in less than an hour what forty 
years ago was a hard day's journey. 

As we look back forty years and note the improvement 
in transportation, we cannot but anticijoate what the prog- 
ress will be in the forty years to come. ' No one can tell 
what is before us. We all know that some of the most re-, 
markable men of the last century have been identified with 
this great problem of transportation; and the names of such 
public benefactors as Stevenson, Bessemer, Morse, Pullman, 
Westinghouse and Thos. A. Scott will always appear promi- 
nent among, those w^io have done much in extending civili- 
zation and making traveling a luxury. Look at the great 
plains of those days and behold the change. Civilization 
with its railroads, its schools and churches, and millions of 
fruitful farms has taken the place of the bullwhacker, the 
buffalo and the Indian. 

Nebraska and Kansas are now two of our very best ag- 
ricultural states, and never in their history have the people 
owned outright as much and ow^ed as little as they do now. 
Nature has done much for them, and now intelligent irriga- 
tion is developing the arid plains on their western borders 
and of the states beyond into farms and orchards that are 
now and will continue to attract thousands who are seeking 

new homes. 

*It has been the pleasure of the author of this book to see and ex- 
amine the old coach at Arbor Lodge. 



68 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

EXTRACTS FROM THE SCRAP BOOK 
OF REV. BYRON BEAL 

Rev. Byron Beal came to Nebraska with his parents in 
the autumn of 1860 and settled eight miles west of the site of 
Grand Island at the mouth of Wood river. The author feels 
that he has struck a mine of wealth in being permitted the 
free use of the reverend's scrap book. From a series of most 
interesting communications to the state papers we freely 
quote. 

Doctor Beal commences his papers with the grand old 
poem, "Breaths there a soul so dead." Later the doctor 
says, "If you will follow me I will draw aside the curtain 
and permit you to look in u]:)on the life of the pioneer homes 
of this state." 

My father, Enos Beal, ca.me from Wisconsin in the fall 
of I860 and took a claim and made settlement at the mouth 
of Wood river. Grand Island city was not yet in existance. 
Here he took a claim beside a man by the name of David 
Crocker, who soon sold out to Fred Evans, the millionaire 
owner of the health resort of Hot Springs, South Dalcota, 
who was at the time a poor man, a dashing dare devil plains- 
man. A man of exploits as Indian lighter and buffalo hunter 
and will be noticed later. 

At this time I do not think there was a foot of rail-road 
in the state. There was a telegraph (built that year) beside 
which ran the four horse overland stages. Father had been 
a man of wealth, but business reverses had swept it away 
and here we were to build a new home. 

Mr. Townsley put in a saw mill on Wood river and fa 
ther built the first frame house in that country. To the 
north or south there were no settlements for hundreds of 
miles. West of us there were a few straggling settlers for 
thirty miles until Ft. Kearney was reached. 

Among these was Hon. James E. Boyd, later our gov- 
ernor. He lived on Wood river twelve miles from the fort. 
When a boy I worked for him a few weeks putting up hay 
for the government. It seemed like old times and as if I 
was a boy again as I met the governor a short time ago in 
the city of Lincoln when he took me by the hand and called 
me ' 'Byron, " and reminded me that I was getting gray. I said. 



HISTORY OF SEWAUD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 69 

"Governor you must remember that forty years have pass 
ed since we were neighbors on Wood river. " 

I well remember some furious debates the governor used 
to have with his father-in-law, a radical republican. No 
man in that day doubted Mr. Boyd's democracy. 

To the eastward eight miles away was the German 
settlement. Among the leading men of thiit day who yet 
remain are Fred Hedde, Wm. Stalley and H. Koenig. 

The little village of Columbus seventy miles to the east- 
w^ard with but few scattering settlers between us and them. 

There were less than thirty thousand people in the whole 
territory. But mark you there was a sociability and hearti- 
ness of welcome among the people of that day never excelled 
since, if indeed equaled. If any one had a little wheat 
he went seventy- five miles to mill, somewhere north of Co- 
lumbus. Potatoes were four dollars per bushel. I have 
sold corn at $3. per bushel in ear and $3.50 shelled. 

Our markets were at our doors; the vast trains of cover- 
ed wagons that passed along on their way to Pike's Peak and 
California with the soldiers at Ft. Kearney bought all we 
had to sell. 

The climate was much different than at present. Fear- 
ful winds came in summer and downed trees, unroofed houses 
and often hot winds came and withered the crops, and such 
blizzards in winter and long droughts in summer. There 
has not been anything like it of late years. 

The thunder seemed to roll on the very ground and the 
lightning was terrific, something fearful. 

We lived here in peace for a while, but on the 5th of 
Feb. , 1H62, our little settlement was thrown into a fever of 
excitement, when two families were clothed in mourning. 
On that day Captain J. P. Smith and two sons, Charles and 
Willie, aged nine and twelve years with a four horse sled 
and Alex Anderson, a fourteen year old neighbor boy with a 
two horse sled, went to the Platte four miles away for loads 
of wood and were all murdered by the Sioux Indians. It 
was a small party of them out on a horse stealing expedition. 
Mr. Anderson followed the boys to the river where he saw 
Mr. Smith and a boy on each side of him fall down on the 
ice shot to death with arrows. Little Willie was not quite 



70 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

dead. They had started to run when shot. With agony in 
his heart, Mr. Anderson wheeled his team around and drove 
home and gave the alarm. Swift riders went up and down 
the road and Mr. Wm. Eldige found the Anderson boy about 
a hundred yards up the channel where he had run and was 
killed. The parties put the four bodies on a sled and re- 
turned home then i^ushed on after the Indians. A light 
snow was falling and it obscured the trail and as there were 
but few of them and they pooi'ly armed they turned back. 
I saw the horrid sight of Mr. Smith and three boys after 
they were prepared for burial. I shall never forget that 
sight, but certainly do not desire to see such another. Sadly 
we lowered the coffins into one grave under an elm tree on 
the banks of Wood river. 

In following papers we will tell of the fate of those 
murderous Indians that will till you with sadness or glad- 
ness as to whether you are a reformer or an old settler. 

Trapping beaver, mink and otter in. 1860 was quite prof- 
itable. I have sold beaver skins from two to three dollars 
per pound and they weighed from two to three pounds each. 
One trip up the Platte, near Boyd's ranch and down the 
river, I caught enough so I sold forty skins. 

I think it was in 1863 that three of us boys were camped 
on the South Loup about ten miles above where Loup City 
now stands. We went hunting and trapping when a band of 
Sioux warriors passed one night with a dozen stolen horses 
taken from the Pawnees. They passed within a few feet of 
our wolf traps. We trailed them far away, but concluded 
that we did not want to meet that crowd and we pulled for 
home twenty-tive miles away. 

(Like the boy in the bear story the track was too fresh). 

When we got home the whole county was in an uproar. 
The Pawnees were out in full force after the Sioux and it was 
thought that likely we were killed. Hunting buffalo was 
the way the people got their meat. I once went out with a 
party and got back with eleven quarters of meat for my 
share and some hides. 

I dropped a line young bull at tirst shot. This is tine 
sport as long as you are the hunter, but when an old bull 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 71 

turns hunter and you are on foot then comes a time when 
the bull has the fun. 

I was out on Elm Creek west of Kearney in company 
with an old hunter (Mr. Hiller). We slipped down a ravine 
close to a herd and Hiller restiny;- his i;-un over my back and 
shot a cow. This performance was relocated several times, 
we would lie down in the tall grass. We had three dead 
cows within a hundred feet. By this time the herd was 
thirty rods away and just on top of the hill. When his dead- 
ly gun was turned on another cow she was hit. She whirled 
and down the hill she came, striking a bee-line for us, 
striking her front feet in a vicious way. She came like a 
cyclone. I said to Hiller, "great guns; old man let's get out 
of this." He said, "lie low and keep still." We did so and 
the result proved just what Hiller predicted. She had not 
seen us at all for she turned aside, ran down the gulch and 
fell. Had we run she might have caught us. 

Of course in those early days we had some bad men in Ne- 
braska. Every body carried a pistol even to church. I car- 
ried a navy then far more regularly than I now carry a pen- 
knife. 

It was a bad practice and is apt to breed a murderous 
spirit. 

There was a man named Slade neai' Laramie that was a 
terror to the whole country; he was killed by the vigilantes. 
The vigilantes were an excusable force in a new country. 

Tom Keeler and two brothers were a hard lot. One of 
these fellows was in constant dread as he carried a cocked 
revolver in his belt. 

I had to sleep with him one night and I objected to his 
putting a cocked revolver under his pillow. So he hung it 
up on a nail. Hank killed a man on the Platte with a double 
barrel gun and my father defended him at his preliminary 
trial. He was sent to the penitentiary at Lincoln and I be- 
lieve he was burned to death at time of fire in the prison. 
Tom was a small but desperate man. I was with an Omaha 
wagon train once. The train was in charge of a big burly 
ruflflan named or known as "Big Burns," a gambler and gen- 
eral bad man. 

We camped on the Elkhorn when Burns and a lot of 



72 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

drivers went over to Tom Keeler's two miles away and got to 
gambling and in the midst of the game Tom blew out the 
lights, drew his gun, knocked Burns down and coolly rob- 
bed him of several hundred dollars with the house full of 
men. I saw Burns next morning; he looked bad. Tom got 
into trouble with a neighbor and they had sworn to kill on 
sight and Tom was the victim. He went dead the first round. 

Horse stealing was considered the crime of crimes to be 
punished with death. A little Frenchman stole an Arabian 
horse at Lone tree (now Central City). He crossed the Platte 
and joined a train for the west. John Rise and Ben 
Johnson (men that I knew) followed and captured him, hung 
him on an island and threw the body into the river. 

I am heartily glad to say the neighbors did not justify 
this murder. But in some cases linch law did seem neces- 
sary else the whole country would have been given up to 
thieves and murders. 

Grasshoppers came, time and again destroyed our crops. 

Our political meetings of that day were held in our 
log school houses. Governor Thayer, Senator Tipton and 
Governor Butler were among our first political speakers in 
Hall county. These men were then young and in their prime 
and made speeches that I have never heard excelled. In 
gratitude I mention my adopted father Hon. Enos Beal. He 
was Probate judge two terms in Hall county and a member 
of the Legislature. He was a man of remarkable powers of 
mind, a genial whole souled Christian gentleman whom I 
loved as I loved no other man on earth and "our Nebraska" 
is dearer to me because it holds his ashes. 

The doctor here pays a very high tribute to our "grand 
old man," Colonel, General, Senator and Governor Thayer, 
but as these pages contain another sketch of him we omit 
this. 

(The religious meetings on the frontier has never been 
excelled to our knowledge. They were held sometimes in a 
mill, sometimes in the loft of a barn or in a log cabin.) 

Rev. Thos B. Lemon was about the first to visit us. We 
all loved that great hearted brainy man of God, an honor to 
humanity and the Christian ministry. 

I cannot forget how Rev. John L. Martin, on bended 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA id 

knees and with streaming eyes, besought the people to be- 
come Christians. Then Rev. Jenny and Rev. Manpiette 
that did grand work lor the master in the wiklerness. Many 
times we were long times without churches and ministers, 
but we were not without God. 

Some of the grandest thoughts of God and our own lit- 
tleness comes to us when alone viewing his wonderful works. 
The man only, is educated who studies nature, men, and 
books and God. And although without churches we were 
not without religious instruction. 

We had many teri-itic pi-airie tires in IHilO however, little 
destruction was wrought because there were few houses and 
no cattle to burn. The sight of a prairie tire at night when 
the long line extended for miles was a grand one and most 
beautiful. Sometimes, however, it lost its charming features 
where it was headed our way. One night a great tire swept in 
from the north, leaped the tire guard and burned father's 
stable with two tine work horses and also my nice colt that 
I had just bought. This was my first horse that I had saved 
my money and paid for. My boyish grief was unbounded. 

The coming of the U. P. railroad wrought mighty 
changes. Before this lands had little value, but with it 
came a mighty tide of people. Cities sprang up aloug the 
line as if by magic, and almost before we were aware of it, 
we were surrounded on every side by the forces of Chris- 
tain civilization. 

I remember the event in 1»57 of a young lawyer, the 
forerunner of a new intellectual life as the railroad marked a 
new era in material progress. Word spread far and wide 
that a lawyer had come. I had seen Indians, buffalo, freight- 
ers and Mormon trains. I new how to drive oxen. I could 
ride a broncho, had traversed the plains. I was indeed quite 
a traveler, but in all my rounds had not seen a live lawyer. 
So I saddled my broncho and straped on my Colt revolvers 
and rode down to Grand Island to see the new and strange 
sight, a lawyer. It was our O. A. Abbott. 

The first editor of our community was the irrepressable 
Seth P. Mobley and his superior half, Mrs. Mobley. She 
was the best writer of the two. My "first ride on the rail" 
was from Grand Island to Omaha, fare $15. It was in spring 



74 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

time when the valley was largely under water. We had rid- 
den ten miles when we came to a dead stand still and the 
conductor stuck his head into our car and yelled out, "You 
folks who want to go to Omaha, come out and help get the 
tender on the track." Out we went and helped pry it on, 
then run the train by hand around a bend. We walked part 
of the way and pushed. We boated it across the Elkhorn. 
After a night and day of labor of this sort we reached Omaha. 

Here the Rev. indulges in a little moral lesson. He says: 
I have been in almost every town in the state before the ad- 
vent of a railroad to their ]3lace and heard the fervent pray- 
ers of the people for the coming of a railroad, but no sooner 
do they come than "Hades, is to pay and the company is 
charged as robbers without mercy." To an old fogy this 
looks funny. 

In closing the doctor says, 'Young men and young wo- 
men of Nebraska, Yours is a goodly parentage, yours were 
noble sires, prove yourselves worthy to live in this grand 
state. It is a grand heritage to be decendants of the first 
settlers of this commonwealth. They were educated in the 
great university of trial and contlict with the untamed forces 
of a new land. You are enjoying the fruit of their labors. ' 

I teach my children to be especially reverent to the 
old settlers and the old soldiers. 

For myself I feel like saying of Nebraska and her people 
as Ruth said to Naomi, "Thy people shall be my people and 
thy God shall be God, where thou diest there will I die and 
there will I be buried." 

Our state has a grand future. We live in a wonderful 
century. Our country is moving forward and upward to- 
ward the sun kissed mountain, peaks where righteousness 
reigns. Up where the fatherhood of God and the brother- 
hood of man will not only be beautiful in sentiment, but in 
living principles observed by alk 

God grant that in this ujDward march of our race to bet- 
ter things our state may keep well to the front. 

I close in the language of the immortal Grady. "The 
trend of the times is with us. The world moves steadily 
from gloom to brightness and bending down humbly as 
Elisha did and praying that my eyes may be made to see, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 75 

I catch the vision of this republic, its mighty forces in bal- 
ance, and its unspeakable glory falling on all its children, 
plenty streaming fiom its borders and lights from its moun- 
tain tops, working out its mission under God's approving 
eye until the dark continents are opened, and the highways 
are established and the shadows lifted and under one lan- 
guage, one liberty and one God, all the nations of the 
world harken to the American drum beat in which favored 
land, Nebraska! ("our beloved Nebraska") shall be one of the 
chiefest states and shall march amid the breaking of the 
millenial dawn into the paths of righteousness and peace." 

In looking through the doctor's scrap book, we find 
some thrilling events related which w^e must give on the 
subject of "Hunting for scalps." 

The avenging of the murder of Smith and the three 
boys at Wood River. 

Upon the death of Smith and the boys, Fred Evans 
mounted his swiftest horse, (he had good ones) and he was 
noted as being the hardest rider in Central Nebraska, well 
armed with six-shooters, rode in hot haste to Kearney to in- 
form the commander that he might at once get his soldiers 
on the trail. But that coward did not propose to risk his 
worthless carcass on so perilious a mission and so informed 
Evans. This caused the brave plainsman to boil over with 
wrath and he denounced the captain as a coward and a 
fraud. 

Evan's work was not entirely lost. A company was 
sent a little way up Wood River but soon returned. Mean 
time John Talbot of Doby Town, with a small company of 
settlers captured fourteen Sioux a little w\ay east of the Fort 
and thinking them to be the murders, took them to the Fort 
and gave them over to the military. The captain tui-ned 
two of them loose and told them to go to their camp and in- 
form the chiefs that unless the murderers were given up 
the twelve would be shot or hanged. The Indians soon re- 
turned with the news that if the twelve Indians were not 
turned loose immediately there would be, ere long, some 
more dead white men in that section. The coward turned 
the cut throats free. From this hour hostilities were on. 
Soon another band of fifteen Sioux came from the north and 



76 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

stopped about six miles west of the scene of tragedy and 
killed some oxen of a settler who locked himself up in his 
house, then the Indians struck north, when seventeen set- 
tlers pursued in haste, and as they remembered the perfidy 
of the captain at the Fort, resolved to take no prisoners. 
The trail was lost in the sand hills and the Indians escaped. 
But now a new i^arty appears as crafty and cunning as the 
Sioux and as rapid riders as the best, the Pawnees, overtook 
a band of Sioux on Wood River and in the midst of a winter 
blizzard entered their cam 3 and killed all but one of the 
band. They returned and came to the wndow^ Smith's home 
with the bloody scalps to show the poor woman how that 
they had avenged the murder of her husband and children. 
There was apparently peace now for a while. In May, 1S61, 
I was camped with three teams on the Platte for two months. 
There were five of us including two young women. All of a 
sudden we were sui-rounded by a war party of Cheyennes, 
numbering about one hundred and fifty. They had just 
come from a light with the Pawnees where they had the 
worst of it and were not in good humor. They pulled out 
papers, however, to prove that they were good ingins. 
They wanted Hour, meat and everything else in the eating 
line. Just then w^e had nothing too good for them, although 
we did not feel so very generous in our hearts. The scoun- 
drels stole tw^o blankets while they w^ere parading as "good 
Indians. '' 

(Here the doctor reads a little lecture to Dr. Geo L. Mil- 
ler that was sensible but space forbids it a space here.) 

In 1864 the Sioux attacked Martin's ranch on the Platte 
and shot two boys, Nathan and Robert, who were riding a 
stallion. These boys were pinned together and fell off the 
horse and were passed by. They both recovered. Later 
came the massacre of a train at Plum Creek. These were 
immigrants followed by the stampede of settlers, beginning 
at Boyd's ranch and extended to every part of Nebraska 
west of the Missouri river settlements, and even the resi- 
dents of Omaha and Nebraska City trembled. It was a ter- 
rible panic stricken stampede from the mountains to the 
river. We went that night to the German settlement, eight 
miles, where Wm. Stally built a fort of logs 24x24 and others 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 77 

put up socl forts around Koenig^s and Wiches store. The 
crowd went on to Columbus and there halted. It was a 
motley crowd of wagons, cattle, horses, men, women and 
children. It was a solid mass of confusion. At Columbus 
Fred Evans organized a smnll party on swift horses well 
armed and went back to learn of the true situation. The 
danger did not prove so great as feared and soon most of us 
returned to our homes. 

About this time Mr. Storey, a blacksmith near Boyd's 
ranch was killed while away on a hunt. Soon eight Indians 
came to the ranch and were taken by a squad of soldiers who 
set out for Fort Kearney and camped on an island and later 
reported that the Indians escaped, but later confessed that 
they killed them. (There were more interesting incidents 
related in these reminiscences but space forbids and we close 
their recital reluctantly.) 

Am glad for my readers that I got hold of the doctor's 
scrap book. 



HISTORICAL LETTER OF DR. GEO, MILLER 

I arrived in Council Bluffs on the night of the 18th of 
October, 1854, after an overland journey of five days and 
four nights in a Concord coach of the Western Stage Com- 
pany from Keokuk, Iowa. I had come from my home in 
Syracuse, N. Y., by way of St. Louis and steamer to Keokuk 
by appointment to meet my father, the late L. Miller, by 
whose influence I M^as persuaded to become a citizen of the 
new territory which was born into the Union in the earlier 
months of that year. I accompanied him in the wild venture 
to the new land on that delightful journey. On the morning 
of the 20th of October we crossed the Missouri, planted foot 
on Nebraska soil, and took our first view of the untamed re- 
gion from what is now the chief town in one of the youngest 
and greatest agricultural states of the national sisterhood. 
My age was twenty-four, I was bj^ profession a physician, 
and I claim whatever distinction may attach to the fact that 
I was the first medical practicioneer bearing proper cred6n- 
tials who located in Nebraska. My wife, the bride of a year, 
was left to the hospitality of kindred in Ann Arbor, Michi- 



78 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

gan while I came on to spy out the land and select our future 
home. "Omaha City" was the name of the place which had 
been playing havoc with my imagination for several months, 
from pictures of its importance and glowing promises that 
had come to me from my father who had the disadvantage 
of never having seen it himself. When I say that the ter- 
ritory did not contain a single white tiller of the soil at that 
day, and that Omaha consisted of a map of three hundred 
twenty acres subdivided into town lots, numerous white 
stakes, not more than a dozen white people who could truth- 
fully say they were residents, and not a house that would 
not disgrace the name, some idea may be had of the scene 
that first impressed the immigrant from imperial New York. 
The great motionless ocean of prairie land was spread out 
in the attractive contrasts of rolling upland and valley with 
the familiar browns of autumnal vegetation lighted up by 
warm sunshine which descended from beautiful cloudless 
skies through a hazy atmosphere in a way that no other 
country dare attempt for a comparison. Apart from these 
natural charms of scene, wildness and chaos was on every 
hand, and confronting all was the discouraging legend of 
the great "American Desert. " But aboriginal savagery was 
here to aid the work of disenchantment in the form of the 
first Indian, the real thing, I had ever seen except the half- 
civilized Iroquoise of the New York reservations. 

The Omahas were camped in their tepees on the low- 
lands where the smelter works and Union Pacific shops are 
now; bucks, squaws, papooses, ponies, dogs, and wigwams 
in marching disorder. They were resting for a few days on 
their way to their annual hunt in the Elkhorn valley region 
where the burly bison, elk. deer, antelope, and other game 
abounded, and which is now one of the agricultural gardens 
that constitute the backbone of the state. They were friend- 
ly, but sullen, and looked upon the white man with mingled 
expressions of sadness and curiosity. They had been bayo- 
neted to their doom by the merciless rapacity of the greatest 
land pirates on earth, and they knew their fate. 

■ My first patient in the new country was a man who was 
not very patient after 1 reached him in the corner of a fioor- 
less and roofless log cabin, whose sole companion was a jug 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 79 

of whiskey which, though speechless, told the sad tale. He 
was dead from alcoholic poisoning. The next victim of my 
professional prowess was an Omaha papoose. I had brought 
with me a tin sign which bore the warning in gilded letter- 
ing of the two words, "Doctor Miller," which had done duty 
two years in Syracuse. I announced myself by placing it 
between two twisted boards of a cottonwood boarding shanty 
that was about fourteen feet long with a small room for the 
wife and baby of Mr. Bedell, the sole proprietor, who kept a 
boarding place without any place inside to board. My "of- 
fice" was on the broad prairie outside of the structure. An 
Indian was told that the sign meant "medicine man," nnd I 
had my second "call," to which I was in great dread of re- 
sponding with visions of tomahawks and scalping knives 
dancing through my thoughts in alarming confusion. With 
every hair on my head ready to rise, I invaded the Indian 
camp to find a beautiful child fatally sick with double 
pneumonia. It died the same night, and, in a jociiliar way, 
the story was told in Sunday schools, and survives to this 
day with the question: "Are you the Doctor Miller who 
killed the paijoosev" That question was asked of me a year 
ago on an Omaha street car. I would like to paint the scene 
of sorrow wdiich touched my own heart with the keenest 
sympathy, with the grandfather, grandmother, father and 
mother of the dying child, w^hen I gave sign to the inmates 
of that mourning Indian household that there was no hope 
for it. The next day the father appeared plastered all over 
wnth clay as a badge of sorrow, with no other dress than a 
breech clout and moccasins. 

My professional life, so far, had not given me a very 
wide name for skill in my profession. At that time deer 
w^ere hunted in what is now the wholesale business center of 
the city, and wolves yelped discordantly all over the town at 
night. I w^as homesick and wanted to "get out of the wil- 
derness," and made known my yearning to Gov. Thomas B. 
Cuming, wiiose name and influence had much to do with my 
coming out to the new country. He ordered me to go to 
Ann Arbor, of whose university he was a graduate, and get 
my wife, which I did without a day's delay, and here is the 
woman with the golden hair and gentle heart, as brave as 



80 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

any other soldier in the combat of trials and tribulations in 
the conquest of new countries who ever lived, or died. 

Cuming was a remarkable man, intellectually brilliant 
and full of executive ability, courage and aggressive force. 
The death of Gov. Burt a few days after his arrival from 
his South Carolina home devolved upon Cuming the respon- 
sibility of organizing the territory under civilized rule, be- 
cause the Organic Act provided that the secretary of the 
territory should be the acting governor on the death or in 
the .ibsence of the governor. With what intelligent resolu- 
tion and wisdom he created counties, election districts, polls 
for voting where there were no voters, and the first legislat- 
ive body for the enactment of laws, all by the fiat of proc- 
lamations, which were models of style, history will not allow 
future generations to forget. One illustration of how the 
first law- givers of Nebraska were created must suffice. It 
was the Burt county district to which, I think, one member 
of the Council (Senate) and two representatives were allotted. 
There was not a white resident in all that region. But B. L. 
Folsom, a resourceful pioneer and a near relative of Mrs. 
Grover Cleveland, was equal to the occasion, and he, H. C. 
Purple of Council Bluffs, and two or three others started out 
from Omaha one fine morning witli a team, tent, equipage, 
and both solid and liquid supplies, to have an election in 
Burt county. And they had it after this fashion: they 
pitched their tent in Washington county, instead of Burt, 
opened the polls, and voted for tliemselves, and each other 
in due form; the ballots being deposited in a cigar box; a 
canvas of the ballots was made on the spot by the voters 
who acted as an election board; they were all "elected," for- 
mal "returns"' were made out and sent to Gov Cumings, and 
certificates of election were duly issued upon which they 
took their seats in the capitol of the Territory where they 
served forty days and many nights in bringing it under codes 
of civil and criminal law. I was thosen chief clerk of the 
Council, which consisted of thirteen members, by a majority 
of one vote. Joseph L. Sharp, representing the Cass coun- 
ty district, was actually a citizen and resident of Glenwood, 
Iowa, and never resided in Nebraska a day in his life, either 
then or afterwards, but was chosen president of the Council, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 81 

and he was a very able and dignified presiding officer. My 
pay was $4.00 per diem for keeping the legislative journals, 
and I worked on an average fifteen hours a day. My home 
that winter was about a mile and one-half northwesterly 
from the scene of my labors, and consisted of a single room, 
perhaps twelve by fourteen feet in area walled in by cotton- 
wood boards which were decorated on the inside by one coat 
of what was called plaster, which was mostly clay, and which 
seemed to have been thrown on the wall with a scoop shov- 
el. That home was in keeping with other hovels in which 
the founders of Omaha lived that winter; and the one room 
served as parlor, bed-room, kitchen and laundry with great 
versatility. A single tallow candle at the only window, 
which was of an unpainted sash, was my guiding star as I 
walked and wandered at about one o'clock at night, not one 
human habitation intervening on the way from the capitol 
to the frail box in which I lived. But for the mild and 
beautiful winter of 1854-55, the place would have been unin- 
habitable. Food supplies for the people came from Coun- 
cil Bluffs and the sparse settlements near that town, except 
side meat of hogs, canned stuff, with cove oysters from Bal- 
timore. Eggs were so scarce that as high as a dollar a doz- 
en w^as paid for them by the few wiio could pay the price. 
It may be said that the first year of the white occupation 
was one of doubt, hope, and expectation, just as subsequent 
years were those of gradual discovery and advancement. 
The panic of 1857 practically destroyed and depopulated 
Omaha. No agriculture, .no railroads or telegraphs, no com- 
munication, except occasional boats by river marked this 
part of the country, and revival came only through the dis- 
covery of gold in Colorado, which was soon followed by the 
construction of the Union Pacific railroad. 

I cannot better close this article than by a mere mention 
of the larger men who laid the foundations of Nebraska. 
The Mortons, Masons, Nuckolls, and Furnas of the South 
Platte section; the Cumings, Creightons, Poppletons, Pat- 
ricks, Merediths, Woolworths, Hanscome, Ferguson, Esta- 
bropk. Lakes, Byers, Doanes, Wakeleys and Folsoms of the 
North Platte, are names that will live on in the history of 



82 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the now younf? and powei'ful state among its chief founders, 
and future generations will preserve them with honor in its 
enduring annals. Geo. L. Miller. 




DR, GEORGE L. MILLER 
One of the few Nebraska architects and great builders 
who helped to lay broad and deep foundations fifty years 
ago is the person of Dr. Miller, physician, editor, and orator. 
Our great and honored citizen was born among the rugged 
hills of old York state at Boonville, in 1830. Like most New 
York boys, George put in much time grubbing brush, burn- 
ing log heaps, picking up stone, and navigating a stone 
boat, but this manner of life did not quite suit the high- 
minded boy. He was one of the kind that took to books, 
and many an old tallow dip did he burn in gaining knowl- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 83 

edge of the world. He outgrew the httle red school house 
of his day, and hied himself away to Syracuse, where he, in 
due time, graduated in the College of Physicians, in 1852. 
Then he stuck up his shingle in Syracuse and practiced two 
years, when he heard of Nebraska, just as it was organized 
as a territory. He was not long in finding the trail which 
he followed to Omaha. However, before coming west he had 
wooed and won the heart and hand of Miss Harriet E. 
Dickinson December, 1853, at Syracuse, and their wedding 
trip was toward the setting sun. She was a native of Syra- 
cuse, born in 18^4. The Doctor practiced his profession in 
the little city with success for about eleven years, but some- 
how while ministering to the wants of the sick, he had his 
keen eye on politics, and took a great interest in the great 
questions of the day. It cannot be said that Dr. Miller was 
ever an office seeker. He was more a sort of a power behind 
the throne, in his party. In the councils of his party he 
was always, and even to this day, a leader. In 18B5 he 
dropped the pill bags, and founded the Omaha Herald, which 
he edited with great ability for twenty-three years. Under 
his guiding hand the Democratic party had a great defender 
and wise exponent. The Herald never forgot Omaha, and 
our Nebraska always had a true and valuable friend. The 
Doctor did very much for his city and state by the use of his 
ever ready and able pen. Some years ago he met with fi- 
nancial disaster with so many other brave Nebraska men, 
and his ample fortune was swept away, and at the same time 
the fire fiend visited his home and the beautiful mansion at 
Seymour Park was destroyed. About the same time the 
death angel visited the home and took his life companion 
from him. After years of loneliness, he found a new com- 
panion, Miss Frances Briggs, a New Hampshire lady, and 
he is again blessed in his old age with a home where love 
dwells. Dr. Miller is an honored member of the A. F. and 
A. M., and the church home is with the Trinity Episcopal 
people. 



84 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 





J, STERLING MORTON, THE FATHER OF ARBOR DAY 

Others will write the story of the life and labors of Sec- 
retary Julius Sterling Morton, but we deem it a privilege to 
pay this small tribute to the memory of one that has done 
so much for Nebraska. In 1902, just after Mr. Morton was 
called from earth, it was our privilege to wander over Califor- 
nia and our way led us through the great redwood grove near 
Sante Cruz, where we were permitted to dedicate a great 
tree to the memory of our friend. This beautiful tree of 
ponderous size stands in the middle of the great park. It is 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 85 

symmetrical, lifting its branches two hundred and seventy 
feet. 

Upon our return home at the meeting of the Nebras- 
ka Historical Society, a resolution was offered and adopted 
to place a bronze tablet upon the tree in memory of the 
Father of Arbor Day. The author and Dr. Geo. L. Miller, 
of Omaha, were appointed a committee to attend to ihe 
matter. A beautiful bronze tablet was secured. It was two 
feet square, containing this inscription; on the upper left 
hand corner was the mandate, "Plant truths," on the upper 
right hand corner the words, "Plant trees." 

"In memory of J. Sterling Morton, Father of Arbor Day, Born 
April 22, 1832 ; Died April 26, 1902. By order of State Historical So- 
ciety of Nebraska. 

In 1904 on Arbor day the good people of Sante Cruz, 
led by the Mayor and assisted by the city schools, received 
the tablet with fitting ceremonies and placed it on the great 
tree. 

Letters from President Roosevelt, Secretary Wilson 
and many other distinguished men were read and the follow- 
ing address from chairman Cox, of the committee, to the 
people of California was read: 

To his Excellency Governor Pardee, and the Hon. D. C. 
' Clark, Mayor of Sante Cruz, California, and All the 

Good People of the Golden State, the People of Nebras- 
ka Send Greeting: 

In the name and by the authority of the State Histori- 
cal Society of Nebraska, it becomes our pleasant duty to pre- 
sent to you this beautiful bronze tablet in memory of our 
greatest citizen that has finished his work and gone to 
his reward on. this, the seventy-second anniversary of his 
birth, and on the thirty-second anniversary of Arbor day as 
established by the legislature of our young commonwealth. 

May I tell you in brief of the life work of Julius Ster- 
ling Morton. 

He accomplished two praiseworthy feats in the state of 
Michigan before his removal to Nebraska. He graduated 
in the state university at Ann Arbor, then married Miss 
Joy and with his noble bride came straightway to the new 
territory of Nebraska in 1854, where he at once commenced 



86 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

helping to lay deep and broad foundations for our great 
commonwealth. 

He was among the very first to put in motion, that en- 
gine of magic power, the printing press, editing the Nebras- 
ka City News, commencing in the spring of 1855. The pa- 
per was first published in the old government block house. 

He was one among the first to till our virgin soil. He 
located at what the world now knows as Arbor Lodge, near 
Nebraska City, and there began in a business way to make 
a home. He and his good wife began planting trees and it 
would do your soul good, ladies and gentlemen, to see Arbor 
Lodge to-day, with its wealth of shade and fruit. 

Mr. Morton was called by President Buchanan to other 
duties. He became secretary of the infant territory, and was 
acting governor twice during his administration. He per- 
formed well whatever his hands found to do, but his politi- 
cal creed was not in accord with the majority of our state 
and for long years it became his pleasant duty to lead our 
people to a higher plain in agriculture. He became a model 
farmer, but his principal delight and highest ambition was 
to clothe our boundless prairies with groves of timber. He 
saw the great necessity of our people. He saw with his 
keen eye the wanton waste of our forests in the states, 
where nature had blessed the people with forests. His 
great soul was all on fire on this important subject. It was 
his study by day and by night. His great efforts and the 
inspiration of his life caused such an awakening that con- 
gress took the matter in hand and passed the timber culture 
act and the forest reserve act, and the Nebraska legisla- 
ture was induced to name Arbor day as a holiday and also 
encourage the planting of trees by relieving certain lands 
from taxation, where timber was i^lanted and cultivated. 
Nebraska taking the lead in establishing Arbcr day as a hol- 
iday, nearly all our states have followed as well as many na- 
tions of the world. When Nebraska became a state in 1867 
it was a boundless prairie, with scarcely a tree or shrub in 
sight, except along a few of the streams. Now it is dotted 
all over with beautiful groves of timber, aggregating thous- 
ands of millions of trees. The great middle west is now 
beautiful with hundreds of thousands of groves that are a 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 87 

joy to all beholders, giving shelter from the chilling winter 
winds and a cooling shade in summer, and adding a great 
wealth of fuel and useful timber for a thousand uses. 

One of the sages wrote the axiom: "The man who 
causes two blades of grass to grow where only one grew be- 
fore, ijs a benefactor." Then how much more is our hero a 
benefactor, that has led the way in planting countless mill- 
ions of the grandest plants upon the earth. 

In recognition of his great service to the country and to 
mankind, President Cleveland called him to a place in his 
cabinet, and he became, in 1892, the secretary of agriculture. 
In organizing the department of agriculture he displayed 
such business ability that he was soon recognized as the 
master mind of the administration. 

Now, my f el low" citizens of our great republic, is it not 
most fitting that this noble character should have his name 
carried to future generations as an inspiration? And now 
we ask the good and wise people of California to accept 
this table and place it upon this giant of the forest, he loved 
so well. Grand tree, that has stood for so many centuries, 
'till thou hast, with thy roots, penetrated deeply in the soil 
of California, and upon thy great symmetrical trunk, lifted 
thy evergreen sombrero high up toward the sky, where it 
has kissed the breezes of the great ocean for thousands of 
years. Now thou hast another duty to perform. Thou 
mayest carry upon thy body this memorial of thy greatest 
friend, as an inspiration to all people, and countless gener- 
ations yet unborn. May thy majestic form stand through 
the coming centuries, the delight of all beholders bearing 
this precious memorial in everlasting bronze, and may the 
children to the remotest generation gain a new and better 
inspiration as they gaze upon the ponderous form in all 
your grandeur, bearing the name of one that has accomp- 
lished so much for humanity! 

With the kindest regards of all true Nebraskans, to 
your great and growing commonwealth, we have the honor 
of being your obedient servant, W. W. Cox, 

Chairman Committee. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




GENERAL JOHN M, THAYER 

Full fifty years ago John came to Nebraska from the 
Old Bay state where he was born, 1820. He received a lib- 
eral education and spent his young manhood as teacher in 
the common schools, and was married in 1843 to Miss Mary 
T. Allen, of his native state. They were the parents of six 
children, two of which yet live, viz., Geo. D. and John M. , 
Jr. 

Mr. Thayer had not long to wait in Nebraska until there 
was something to do. 

The first legislature in the winter of 1855 made Mr. 
Thayer commander of the militia to defend the frontier 
from the marauding Indians and he performed these duties 
from 1855 to 1861. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 89 

General Thayer had led squads of militia at different 
times against troublesome Indians, but the story which we 
wish to tell here is a peculiar episode in military history. 
The Pawnees had been committing depredations along the 
Elkhorn river, and urgent word was sent to Omaha asking 
for protection. The Governor was absent at least from Oma- 
ha and Secretary J. Sterling Morton was in that case com- 
mander-in-chief of the militia. It was suspected that Gov. 
Black might be absent from the territory. 

The Secretary saw there was an emergency and a hur- 
ried consultation with General Thayer resulted in an order 
to march at once against the red-skins. Gen. Thayer prompt- 
ly obeyed the order. He raised about forty men in Omaha 
and left that night at midnight and pushd on to Fontanelle 
where the panic stricken j^eople were assembled. Two 
days later a sufficient force was gathered to pursue the 
Pawnees with a force of one hundred and ninety-four men. 
He had one cannon, the only piece of artillery in the territory. 
He took the trail and pursued the Indians in hot haste. There 
were five thousand Pawnees and they had devastated the 
whole settlement along the Elkhorn river. They had five 
hundred ponies and these had been turned into the growing 
crops of the settlers. 

The commander had secured the co-operation and assit- 
ance of Gen. Curtis, an Iowa citizen, and Lieutenant Robin- 
son of the U. S Cavalry dragoons and with the force as well 
organized as possible under the conditions, they were push- 
ing to the front. When Gov. Black got wind of what was 
going on he immediately took the trail and appeared in 
camp the 4th day just at night fall. The Governor of course 
was commander-in-chief, but unfortunately hear, he was par- 
tially intoxicated. Now Gen. Thayer. (He had had that title 
conferred by the Legislature) was in a "quandry" to know 
just what to do with a commander over him in a state of in- 
toxication. 

The general found the governor's demijohn while the 
governor was asleep and emptied it. Far away from civiliza- 
tion and long before the terrible scenes of the war in which 
Gen. Thayer so wonderfully distinguished himself, he was 
brought face to face with one of the most trying ordeals of 



90 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

his eventful life with all the responsibility of success or 
failure restin*^: upon his shoulders with a commander-in-chief 
over him in a condition of intoxication. 

They were in the noon camp the following day with 
Gov. Blac-k hid aw^ay from public gaze in a tent guarded by 
soldiers, when the governor sent for Lieutenant .Robinson 
to come to the tent. The lieutenant obeyed. When the 
governor issued this famous order, "Colonel, I order you 
to take sf'venty-tive men and go over to Columbus (away 
over on the Platte) and procure -ten barrels of whiskey and 
four sacks of Hour." 

Col. Robinson was schooled in the regular army and 
knew that orders of superior must be obeyed. Gen. Thayer 
rose to the occasion. He readily learned that this famous 
order would create insubordination in the camp. Loud 
mutterings were heard among the men cursing the governor. 
Gen. Thayer at once mounted his horse and in a sentorian 
voice he called out "Attention Battalion! Pall into line! and 
prepare to march." Every man rose to his position and 
ob3yed orders. There was no more sign of mutiny; that ques- 
tion was settled. 

He then detailed two soldiers to take the governor from 
the tent, place him in an ambulance and take seats beside 
him and allow no man to approach him but himself, and if 
he objects "You put him in at all hazards." 

The General saw that he must act promptly and with 
determination, and it ended the trouble. The expedition 
was successful. It met fourteen hundred warriors and sub- 
dued them without (by strategy) tiring a gun. We would 
gladly follow up this interesting story of the Pawnee war 
but si^ace forbids. We, however, refer the reader to pages 
281 to 246 of volume 5 of the second series of the Nebraska 
Historical Transactions for a full account of the same. 

When the thunder drums began to beat in the year of 
18(il, our friend readily heard and at once set about organ- 
izing the Nebraska tirst regiment, of which h<^ was elected 
the first Colonel. That grand regiment that did such grand 
work in the Sanguinary conflicts, where it had such an hon- 
orable part. Its history, if it could all be told, w^ould make 
a volume of surpassing interest, and we have thought that 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 91 

if it should fall to our lot to ever write another book, that 
above all subjects we would choose the work of the Nebraska 
First on the field of ^lory. 

We cannot t^'ll here of the thousand valorous dec'ds of 
Colonel Thayer, Brigadier General Thayer and of Major 
(xeneral Thayer. They are written in the chi-onicles of the 
greatest conflict of history. His name shines out grandly 
among the bright stars. Always true and brave, always 
kind and gentle and always ready to dare aid do what his 
Chief commanded. When the white dove of peace again 
came to bless our land, Gen. Thayer returned to us covered 
with honors. Our first state legislature honored him with 
a seat in the United States senate, where in the troublous 
days of re-construction, he did good work for the country, 
while never forgetting his loved Nebraska. Then he was 
honored by his old Commander, General Grant, by the ap- 
pointment as Governor of Wyoming Territory; and then the 
good people of his adopted state conferred upon him twice 
the honors (the greatest in their gift) of Governor of the 
state. Truely he has been a most faithful servant and is 
justly entitled to all honors. 

He has now retired from active life, but in his green 
old age he enjoys the love and friendship of a grateful peo- 
ple. His noble life companion was taken from him some 
3^ears ago and the dear old man now in his 86th year, just 
having passed the Hoth mile stone, now has to "tread the wine 
press alone." 



GOV. ROBERT WILKINSON FURNAS 

Is a man so well known to this generation of Nebras- 
kans that our poor pen is hardly capable of doing him jus- 
tice. In the language of another, he was a man that "does 
things." 

Governor was a man of "strenuous life." The first im- 
portant step he took in Nebraska was to edit a live paper, 
the Brownville Advertiser. It was a first class, newsy, clean 
paper intended to advance the best interests of the new Ter- 
ritory. It was republican in politics. The Advertiser 



92 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

poured hot shot into the camp of the democratic federal of- 
fice holders. 

He bef^an immediately to take an interest in the agri- 
cultural development of the territory, and helped organize 
the Agricultural Society, and was a main spoke in the wheel 
at our first territorial fair, held in the fall of 1859 at Neb- 
raska City. 

Mr. Furnas landed in the territory at Brownville, April 
6, 1853. He was a brigadier genei^al of Nebraska militia at 
the opening of the war. He received a commission as colo- 
nel at the hands of the immortal Lincoln in the Union army, 
and later was colonel of the Second Nebraska cavalry, and 
was sent against the depredating Indians in the northwest. 

He has been President of the State Board of Agricul- 
ture twelve years, and was serving the board as its sec- 
retary twenty-two years. He was elected governor in 1872 
on the republican ticket by the largest vote ever cast up to 
that date. He served honorably and well. He was Presi- 
dent of the State Historical Society, and refused after a long 
term of years to accept its farther honors; but upon the 
death of Hon. J. Sterling Morton, was induced to accept the 
place again, and he retained it up to the annual meeting of 
1905, when he declined to be a candidate. Gov. Furnas was 
born among the blue clay hills of old Miami County, Ohio, 
when it was pretty much of a wilderness. May 5, 1824, and 
remained there until seventeen, when by some hook or crook 
he took the southern trail and landed in old Kentucky; but 
that old rocky-tumble down town of Covington did not suit 
hl'n; so he went to Cincinnatti where he found his best 
girl, Miss Mary E. McComas and was married there October 
29, 1845. She was an Ohio girl, born in Green county, De- 
cember 2S, 1828. Eight childi-en came to brighten and bless 
their home, viz., William E., Arthur W., Fillmore T., Geo. 
G., John S., Mollie, now Mrs. Wm. H. Weeber, andCeliaH., 
now Mrs. E. E. Lowman. 

The Governor had a membership in all branches of the 
Masonic and also tho I. O. O. F. fraternities. He was born 
a Quaker but later was connected with the Presbyterian 
church. His noble wife, who had been such a grand helper 
in all his early struggles, was taken from him some years 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 93 

ago. Decembei' 25, 1901, he married Mrs. Susanah E. Jami- 
son, and again had a happy home. He resided continu- 
ously at the first old home in Brownville almost fifty years. 
Governor Furnas has been a very active man all his 
Nebraska days. In tree planting he has been a success. 
Next to Morton, he has done more to encourage forestry and 
fruit growing than any other citizen. He has through all 
the years taken a keen interest in horticultural society work. 
He was a i^leasant speaker and a good writer. He was al- 
w^ays listened to with pleasure, and his waitings always find 
attentive and interested readers. The readers of this vol- 
ume are especially requested to read his pen pictures of the 
long ago. We can't tell a tenth of what we would like to say 
for Gov. Furnas. The dear old man finished his work and 
went to his reward June 1, 1905. 



REV. ]. M. YOUNG, FOUNDER OF LINCOLN 

Among the grand men that helped so well to lay these 
foundations, was the Rev. John M. Young the founder of 
Lincoln, an old, tried and true friend of the author. 

The good old man finished his work and went to his re- 
ward, Feb. 26th, 1884. We clip from the State Journal 
a tribute to his memory paid by the writer on Feb. 27th, 
1884, as follows: 

Our hearts are very sad as w^e read in yesterday's Journ- 
al that our dear old friend, Elder Young, has passed away. 
Of the useful and good, he w^as among the best. All 
that knew him well, loved him well. He was a worker in all 
useful fields. Where any good w^as to be accomplished no 
task was too hard for him. He would face winter storms, 
camp out at night, or do anything to further the w^ork his 
hands found to do. He was among the most enterprising, 
helping other people to help themselves. He loved to make 
money for the sole purpose of doing good with it. Place a 
mountain of gold at his door and he could not be rich while 
any one was in need or there was a laudable enterprise to 
help. The city of Lincoln owes its existence more to him 
than any other man living or dead. We say what we do 



94 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

know. Had it not been for him, there is no doubt that the 
Capitol of our state would have been placed elsewhere. 

Il was our good fortune to make his acquaintance in IHHO 
at Nebraska City, and in 1862 we were living at the Salt Basin, 
where the elder made his home with us when he first visited 
the la ad where your splendid city now stands*. His com- 
pany reached our place at noon on the Fourth of July, 1862. 
They expressed themselves glad to see us, and God knows 
we were glad to see them. We, that day, raised the stars 
and stripes to kiss the breeze for the first time in that new 
land, and we had a celebration. A celebration meant some- 
thing in those dark days, when the war clouds hung like a 
pall over our land. As the Elder talked to us, we would 
cheer or cry when reference was made to the dear boys at the 
front, of their brave deeds, and their sufferings, and of our 
blessed flag that was being trailed in the dust by recreant 
hands. The company remained with us over Sabbath, and 
the Elder preached the first sermon in that vicinity. After 
viewing a wide extent of country, they located their colony 
on the site of your city, and dedicated a portion of section 
22 for a town site and christened it Lancaster. 

It was our pleasure to continue an intimate acquaintance 
with him for a number of years. While his colony was in 
its infancy he was the soul of it. His presence was an in- 
spiration to all the struggling pioneers. Always ready with 
words of cheer and a little cash, when needed. He would 
always find some work for those willing to work. He would 
manage somehow to make work for them. His every day 
lif H was full of good works. His noble Christian example (he 
lived the religion he professed) was valuable to all that 
knew him. Your beautiful city is to-day a monument to the 
memory of its founder and faithful friend. 



AN INCIDENT OF RANCH LIFE IN CENTRAL NEBRASKA 



MY FIRST, LAST AND ONLY BUFFALO HUNT 

"Ranch" life on the plains of Nebraska, or the great 
west, generally speaking, is somewhat different to ordinary 
farm life where the chief business is the cultivation of the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBliASKA 05 

soil. "Ranch" is a S])a.iiisli word, and is derived froiii its 
customary use in old Spain or Mexico and other colonies of 
Spanish origin and is generally applied to a ti-act of land 
where stock — such as cattle or horses, or both are raised, 
and is a])])lied to the house where the cattle men or rancliers 
make their lieadquartei's and reside. In th(? early history 
of Nebraska, many of tliese ranches were scattered over 
the wester-n plains or along the timbei-ed streams oi" 
valleys. The first in Neljraska were confined chielly to the 
well travelled road and the roads to ('alifornia, Colorado and 
Oregon, along wliich the ovei-land stag(;s travelled. Most 
of these travelled roa,ds from the east centered a.t or near' 
Fort Kearney, and there was oik' main I'oad from there on 
west. 

The overland travel caused more or less of business 
along that great highway, so ■'ranches" were established all 
along the road and every few miles, where the ranchman 
would put up his stables and a small store for tin; sale of 
some assorted groceries that travellers sometimes needed. 
Here the traveller could have his tcuims fcid and cared for 
over night, with shelter and meals for himself if he so de- 
sired. Sometimes he had a lame animal to trade to the 
rancliman for something iK'ttei- or to sell for cash, so each 
ranchei" usually liad a "bunch" of horsc^s (n- otlua- stock to 
look after for increase and benefit, there being always a 
good j-ange of grazing land for such animals. So the ra,nch- 
man liad almost all he could do to loolc aJter his stock, cut 
wood and haul it, or cut hay and haul it, looU' al'ter his stoi'e 
and wait on travellers, coming and going. 

In the early days, before any government surveying 
was done, the ranches wen; all "scjuatter's claims," using 
such land as they needed and by common consent and und(;r- 
standing with ncnghboring ranchmen, regai-diess of a,ny 
specially surveyed lines. 

Such was "Sydenham's Ranch." at the "Sevente(mth 
White Point" west of Kort Kearney on the overland mail 
route to Cyiilifornia, ('olorado and Oregon. This j had built 
foi- a home for my motlu^r and brothers and sistej-s, wliil(! a,s 
postmaster, etc., at old Foi't Kearney, I was eai-ning the 
money for tlie su])por1, of the fajiiily there not Ixiing 



96 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

enough of ranching business at that time for their living. 
I put up some good strong buildings for a residence, and for 
stables and out of good tough sod, six inches thick, all cut 
and squared with a sharp spade. For a store on the oppo- 
site side of the travelled road from the residence, I put up a 
story and a half house made of hewn logs from the islands 
near by, some being made into boards with a rip-saw for 
flooring, doors, etc. 

The family lived at the ranch; that is, my mother, 
brothers and sisters. I was then unmarried, and only a 
single young man I lived and slept most of the time at the 
fort. Fort Kearney — where I was postmaster for fifteen 
years — and some of the time Indian trader and post trader. 
Once in a while I went up to the ranch from the fort with 
my team to see how the family were all getting along and 
to see'what supplies were wanted; and when convenient for 
me to do so would stay at the ranch over night but this was 
not very frequent, as my duties at the fort kept me most of 
the time steadily there. On one occasion when I had stayed 
over night at the ranch, the next morning about daylight 
the house dog commenced to bark.furiously. I knew at once 
that there must be some polecat, wolf or other animal 
prowling about the house, so I called my brother Richard, 
the only young man besides myself at the ranch at that 
time, to go and see what the dog was barking at. He went 
out to look and there at the front of the garden gate 
of the house, only about four rods distant, was a buffalo. 
My brother was not disturbed much by the buffalo and went 
to bed again. I tried to get him to go out and get a shot at 
it, but he did not see the reason as I did and so lacked the 
energy and disposition necessary. Well, I knew the ranch 
was short of provisions and then Omaha was where I gener- 
ally got my supplies — over two hundred miles away — be- 
sides money was rather scarce with me. So as a matter of 
necessity for the sustenance of the family at the ranch, it 
occurred to me that it would be a wise measure to secure 
that buffalo for provision for the ranch if possible, although 
I was no hunter and had not the bad tastes or desires for 
hunting, and besides, I was a "vegetarian," living on fruits 
and farinacea and never eating any meat. Not being able 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 97 

to get my brother started after the buffalo, I conceived the 
idea to go out after it myself, and then the next thing was 
to act. So I jumped out of bed and slipped my clothes on 
quickly and got the Sharp's rifle from the corner, and then 
learned that there was only one shot in the rifle magazine, 
and no more to be had. Well, seeing as I had got started I 
was going to see the thing through and have the buffalo, or 
part with the only one shot. By the time I was out of the 
house the buffalo had got scared and was off quite a distance. 
I started and went along a low slough to try and get near 
enough to hit it. I had got but a short distance when 
I discovered a traveler's camp about half a mile off and they 
had seen the buffalo and two men had gone out from the 
camp after it. After a while crack went a shot and the buf- 
falo was shot in the leg, that made it go along some what 
limping; but went over the ground pretty fast with the two 
men following him. I was hoping that they would get the 
buffalo down, so I willingly let them have the field all to 
themselves, while I held my one shot in reserve. If they 
downed the buffalo they would get some of the meat, but I 
would get the most of it for the ranch after they had taken 
what they wanted. But they soon gave up the chase after 
the buffalo, as it went farther and farther into the sand hills. 
They could not spare the time to follow it up, so they told 
me as I met them on their way back to the camp. I had 
my eyes on the buffalo, however, and kept on after him. I 
had not gone far when in another direction I saw another 
buffalo going over the top of the hill in the distance. I im- 
mediately quit following the wounded buffalo and as quick 
as possible got to the top of the hill where I had seen it dis- 
appear. When I got there I saw the buffalo lying down in 
the valley below in a very favorable position, with his back 
towards me and the wind blowing from it to me. I then 
went up quickly to within two or three rods of it to make 
quite sure of making the one and only shot I had a success- 
ful hit. I took aim at what I thought was a vital point and 
fired and retreated. Of course it was a daring venture to 
leave myself without another shot to give him in case he 
came after me; but there was no alternative. When the 
buffalo was hit it seemed to jumped up about a foot high in 



98 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the air, ran a little way, then swinging around towards me, 
shaking its great shaggy head, then he turned and went on 
a gallop in the opposite direction. I followed him and soon 
saw the blood drops on the ground in his tracks. He went 
on and on through the sand hills and I thought he must be 
getting weaker, so I thought I might head him off and get 
him to going in the direction of the Platte river valley and 
the ranch. I got somewhat close in on him after a while, 
as near as about twenty yards, when suddenly he turned 
and came towards me at a full gallop, as it undoubtedly 
concluded that I was the cause of its trouble. Then I ran 
as well as I could with a heavy cavalry overcoat on, and it 
was a clear field for the buffalo, for we were in the midst of 
a level valley among the sand hills. 

From my heart came the call on the One I could always 
trust in a time of trouble as I looked to that Heavenly pro- 
tector and commenced to pull off my overcoat to lighten my 
weight and accelerate my progress, as well as to swing it on 
the buffalo's head and dodge if possible when it got too close. 
I turned around to see how close it was to me, when all of a 
sudden it stopped and very soon fell down and died. I must 
have been some miles out in the sand hills from the ranch, 
but knew about the direction of the Platte valley and soon 
got back again to the ranch when my brother Richard and 
I got the yoke of oxen hitched to the wagon, and without 
much trouble found the dead butt'alo. 

Then we skinned it, cut it up and loaded it on the wag- 
on and before night it was at the rancli where they had roast 
buffalo, boiled buffalo, buffalo rump, buff'alo tongue, dried 
buffalo, jerked buffalo, buffalo in all styles served up even 
to the artistic taste of the "chief cook" of a Delmonico. 
Anyway it kept the dear people at the ranch supplied with 
food for a long time, relieving me of that much of care and 
worry for them. 

Well, this was my first, last, and only buffalo hunt in 
which I ever engaged out on the plains, and it was surely a 
successful one, especially when it is considered that I had 
only the one shot in the gun. 

I have seen buffalo in larger herds on the Platte valley, 
and as late as 1870 when I was over on the Republican val- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 99 

ley taking the census as dpputy census enumerator, I must 
have seen fully a hundred thousand of them rano-in^ over 
the Republican valley hills a^ t m- as iho eyc^ could see for 
many miles along the valley. I Ii.'ao often had the oppor- 
tunity to go out on buffalo hunts from Fort Kearney with 
English lords, prominent Americans and army officers wiien 
hunting parties were made up, but I declined, having no 
taste or inclination in that direction. The editorial ba;i:i!.) 
hunt which took place in sight of old Port Kearney at one 
time would make an interesting and readable article of itself, 
but this is all that can be said now relative to buffalo hunt- 
ing and my own reminiscence of an incident of my own per- 
sonal experience in connection with it as a little bit of 
ranch life in these early days of Nebraska history at Sy- 
denham's ranch. 

Moses H. Sydenham, 

Kearney, Neb. 



CHAPTER V. 



List of Territorial and State Officers, U. S. Senators, Representatives in 
Congress, and U. S. Maishials from tlie organization of the territory 
to the present time. 

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS 

Francis Burt, appointed Oct. 16, 1854. Dem. 
Mark W. Izard, appointed Feb. 20, 1855. Dem. 
Wm. A. Richardson, appointed Jan. 12, 1858. Dem. 
Sam. W. Black, appointed May 2, 1858. Dem. 
Alvin Saunders, appointed May 15, 18t3l. Rep. 

' STATE GOVERNORS 

David Butler, elected, took seat Feb. 21, 1867. Rep. 
Robert W. Furnas, elected, took seat Jan. 13, 1873. Rep. 
Silas Garber, elected, took seat Jan. 11, 1875. Rep. 
Albinus Nance, elected, took seat Jan. 9, 1879. Rep. 
James W. Dawes, elected, took seat Jan. 4, 1883. Rep. 
John M. Thayer, elected, took seat Jan. 6, 1887. Rep. 
James E. Boyd, Jan. 8, 1891, Dem. 
Lorenzo Crounse, Jan. 13, 1893. Rep. 
Silas A. Holcomb, Jan. 3, 1895. Pop. 
Wm. A. Poynter, Jan. 5, 1899. Pop. 
Chas. H. Dietrich, Jan. 3, 1901. Resigned. Rep. 
Succeeded by Ezra P. Savage in spring of 1901, being 

Lieutenant Governor. 
J. H. Mickey, Jan. 6, 1903. Rep. 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNORS 

Othman A. Abbott, Jan. 4, 1877. Rep. 
Edmund C. Cams, Jan. 9, 1879. Rep. 
A. W. Agee, Jan. 4, 1883. Rep. 
H. H. Shedd, Jan. 8, 1885. Rep. 
Geo. D. Meikeljohn, Jan. 3, 1889. Rep. 
Thos. A. Majors, Jan. 6, 1891. Rep. 
Robert E. Moore, Jan. 3, 1895. Pop. 
James E. Harris, Jan. 7, 1897. Pop. 



HISTORY OF SEWAKD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 101 

E. A. Gilbert, Jan. 5, 1899. Dem. 
E. P. Savage, Jan. 3, 1901. Rep. 
E. G. McGilton. Jan. 6, 1903. Rep. 

SECRETARIES 

Thomas B. Cuming, appointed Aug. 13, IH',4. Dem. 
John B. Motley, appointed March 23, 1858. Dem. 
J. Sterling Morton, appointed July 12, 1858. Dem. 
A. S. Paddock, appointed May 6, 1861. Rep. 
T. P. Kennard, elected, took seat Feb. 21, 1867. Rep. 
W. H. James, elected, took seat Jan. 10, 1871. Rep. 
John J. Gosper, elected, took seat Jan. 13, 1873. Rep. 
Bruno Tzschuck, elected, took seat Jan. 11, 1875. Rep. 
S. J. Alexander, elected, took seat Jan. 9, 1879. Rep. 

E. P. Roggen, elected, took seat Jan. 4, 1883. Rep. 
Gilbert L. Laws, elected, tojk seat Jan. 6, 1887. Rep. 
Benj. R. Cowdery, Nov. 20, 1889. Rep. Appointed by 

Gov. Thayer to fill a vacancy. 
John C. Allen, Jan. 8, 1891. 
Joel A. Piper, Jan. 3, 1895. 
Wm. F. Parker, Jan. 7, 1897. 
Geo. W. Marsh, Jan. 3, 1901. 
Al. Galusha, Jan. 5, 1905. 

AUDITORS 

Chas. B. Smith, appointed March 16, 1855. Dem. 
Samuel L. Campbell, appointed Aug. 3, 1857. Dem. 
Wm. E. Moore, appointed June 1, 1858. Dem. 
Robert C. Jordan, appointed Aug. 2, 1858. Dem. 
Wm. E. Harvey, appointed Oct. 8, 1861. Rep. 
John Gillespie, appointed Oct. 10, 1865. Rep. 
John Gillespie, elected at organization of state govern- 
ment. Rep. 

Jefferson B. Weston, elected Jan. 13, 1H73. Rep. 

F. W. Liedke, elected, Jan. 9, 1879. Rep. 

John Wallichs, appointed to fill a vacancy, Nov. 12, 
1880. Rep. 

John Wallichs, elected Nov., 1881. Rep. 

H. A. Babcock, elected, inaugurated Jan. 8, 1885. Rep. 

H. A. Babcock, re-elected Nov. 8, 1887. 

Thos. H. Benton, Jan. 3, 1889. Rep. 



102 HISTORY OF SEWAUD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Eugene Moore, Jan. 13, 1893. Rep. 
John F. Cornell, Jan. 7, 1897. Rep. 
Chas. Weston, Jan. 3, 1901. 
E. M. Searle, Jr., Jan. 5, 1905. 

TREASURERS 

R. P. Rankin, appointed March 16, 1855. Dem. 
Wm. W. Wyman, appointed Nov. 6, 1855. Dem. 
Augustus Kountze, appointed Oct. 8, 1861. Rep. 
Augustus Kountze, elected, 1^67. 

James Sweet, elected, inaugurated June 11, 1869. Rep. 
Henry A. Koenij'-, elected, inaugurated Jan. 10, 1871. 
Rep. 

J. C. McBride, elected, inaugurated Jan 11, ls75. Rpp. 

Geo. M. Bartlett, elected, inaugerated Jan 9, 1879. Rep, 

Phelps D. Sturdevant, elected, inaug Jan. ^, 1883. Dem. 

Chas. H. Willard, elected, inaug. Jan. 8, 1885. Rep. 

Chas. H. Willard, re-elected 1887. Rep. 

John E. Hill, Jan. 3, 1889. Rep. 

Joseph S. Hartley, Jan. 13, 1893. Rep. 

John B. Meserve, Jan. 7, 1897. Pop. 

Wm. Stueffer, Jan. 3, 1901. 

Peter Mortensen, Jan. 1903. Rep. 

LIBRARIANS 

James S. Izard, appointed March 16, 1855. Dem. 
H. C. Anderson, appointed Nov. 6, 1855. Dem. 
John H. Kellom, appointed Aug. 3, 1857. Dem. 
Alonzo D. Luce, appointed Nov. 7, 1859. Dem. 
Robert S. Knox, appointed 1861. Rep. 
T. P. Kennard, appointed June 22, 1867. Rep. 
Wm. H. Jones, appointed Jan. 10, 1871. Rep. 
Guy A. Brown, appointed March 3, 1871. Rep. Died 
in office. 

Walter A. Leese, appointed Oct. 29, 1889. 
D. A. Campbell, appointed July 14, 1890. 
Lee Herdman, appointed May 1. 1900. 

ATTORNEY GENERALS 

Champion S. Chase, elected 1867. Rep. 
Seth Robinson, elected 1869. Rep. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 103 

Geo. H. Roberts, inaugurated Jan. 10, 1871. Rep. 

J. R. Webster, inaugurated Jan. 13, 1873. Rep. 

Geo. H. Roberts, inaugurated Jan. 11, 1875. Rep. 

C. J. Dilworth, inaugurated Jan ^', 187V). Rep. 

Isaac Powers, Jr., inaugurated Jan. -1, 1883. Rep. 

Wm. Leese, inaugurated Jan. 8, 1885. Rep. 

Wm. Leese, re-elected 1887. Rep. 

Geo. H. Hastings, Jan. 8, 1891. 

A. S. Churchill, Jan. 3, 18V)5. 

C. J. Smythe, Jan. 7, 1897. Dem. 

F. M. Prout, Jan. 3, IgOl . 

Norr is Brown, Jan., 1905. Rep. 

SUPERINTENDENTS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 

Seth W. Beals, elected 1869. Rep. 

J. M. McKenzie, elected, inaug. Jan. 10, 1871. Rep. 

S. R. Thompson, elected, inaug. Jan. 4, 1877. Rep. 

W. W. W. Jones, elected, inaug. Jan. 6, 1881. Rep. 

Geo. B. Lane, elected, inaug. Jan. 6, 1887. Rep. 

A. K. Goudy, Jan. 8, 1891. Rep. 

H. R. Corbett, Jan. 3, 1895. Rep. 

W. R. Jackson, Jan. 7, 1897. 

Wm. K. Fowler, Jan. 3, 1901. Rep. 

Jasper L. McBrien, Jan. 5, 1905. Rep. 

COMMISSIONERS OF PUBLIC LANDS AND BUILDINGS 

F. M. Davis, elected, inaug. Jan. 4, 1877. Rep. 

A. G. Kendall, elected, inaug. Jan. <), 1881. Rep. 

Joseph Scott, elected, inaugerated Jan. 8. 1885. Rep. 

Joseph Scott, re-elected 1887. Rep. 

John Steen, Jan. 3, 1889. 

A. R. Humphrey, Jan. 8, 1891. 

H. C. Russell, Jan. 3, 1895. 

Wm. W. Wolfe, Jan. 7, 1897. 

Geo. D. FoUmer, Jan. 3, 1901. 

Henry M, Eaton, Jan. 5, 1905. 

JUDGES OF SUPREME COURT 

CHIEF J USTICES. 

Fenner Furguson, appointed Oct. 12, 1854. Dem. 
Aug. Hall, appointed March 15, 1858. Dem. 



104 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Wm. Pitt Kellogg, appointed May 27, 1861. Rep. 

Wm. Pitt Kellogg, re-appointed May 8, 1865. Rep. 

Wm. A. Little, appointed 1866. Dem. 

O. P. Mason, appointed 1866. Rep. 

O. P. Mason, elected 1867. Rep. 

Geo. B. Lake, elected, inaug. Jan. 16, 1873. Rep. 

Daniel Gantt, elected, inaug. Jan. 3, 1878.* Rep. 

Samuel Maxwell, elected, inaug. May 29, 1878. Rep. 

Geo. B. Lake, elected, inaug. Jan. 5, 1882. 

Amassa Cobb, elected, inaug. Jan. 3, 1884. Rep. 

Samuel Maxwell, elected, inaug. Jan. 4, 1886. Rep. 

M. B. Reese, 1888-90. Rep. 

Amassa Cobb, 1890-92. Rep. 

Samuel Maxwell, 1892-94. Rep. 

T. L. Norval, 1894-96. Rep. 

A. M. Post, 1896-98. Rep. 

T. O. C. Harrison, 1898-00. Rep. 

T. L. Norval, 1900-02. Rep. 

S. A. Holcomb, 1902-04. Pop. 

ASSOCIATE JUSTICES AND JUDGES 

Ed. R. Harden, appointed Dec. 4, 1854. Dem. 
James Bradley, appointed Oct. 25, 1854. Dem. 
Sam. M. Black, appointed; date not given. 
Eleazer Wakely, appointed April 27, 1857. Dem. 
Joseph Miller, appointed April 9, 1859. Dem. 
Wm. F. Lockwood, appointed May 16, 1861. Rep. 
Elmer S. Dundy, appointed June 22, 1863. Rep. 
Geo. B. Lake, elected, inaug. Feb. 21, 1867. Rep. 
Lorenzo Crounse, elected, inaug. Feb. 21, 1867. Rep. 
Daniel Gantt, elected, inaug. Jan. 16, 1873. Rep. 
Samuel Maxwell, elected, inaug. Jan. 16, 1873. Rep. 
Amassa Cobb, elected, inaug. May 29, 1878. Rep. 
Amassa Cobb, elected, inaug. 1882. Rep. 
M. B. Reese, elected, inaug. Jan. 3, 1884. Rep. 
Samuel Maxwell, elected 1887. Rep. 
T. L. Norval, 1890, twelve years. Rep. 
A.M. Post, 1892, six years. Rep. 
T. O. C. Harrison, 1894, six years. Rep. 
jtDied in office. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 105 

Julian Sullivan, 1898, six years. Dem. 

Silas A.Holcomb, 1900. 

S. H. Sedgwick, 1902. Rep. 

John B. Barnes, 1904. Rep. 

CLERKS OF SUPREME COURT 

H. C. Anderson, appointed, 1856. 

Chas. L. Salisbury, appointed, 1858. 

E. B. Chandler, appointed, 1859. 

John H. Kellom, appointed, 1861. 

Wm. Kellogg, Jr., appointed, 1865. 

Geo. Armstrong, appointed, 1H67. 

Guy A. Brown, appointed, 1868. Died in office. 

Walter A. Leese, appointed, 1889. 

D. A. CamiDbell, appointed, 1S90. 

Lee Herdman, ai^pointed, 1900. 

REPORTERS SUPREME COURT 

J. M. Woolworth, appointed, 1870. 
Lorenzo Crounse, appointed, 1873. 
Guy A. Brown, appointed, 1875. 
Walter A. Leese, 1889. 
D. A. Campbell, 1890. 
Lee Herdman, 1900. 

U.S. MARSHALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEBRASKA 

Mark W. Izard, appointed, 1854. Dem. 
Eli R.Doyle, appointed, April 7, 1855. Dem. 
Ben. P. Rankin, appointed, March 29, 1856. Dem. 
P. W. Hitchcock, appointed Sep. 19, 1861. Rep. 
Casper E. Yost, appointed April 1, 1869. Rep. 
J. T. Hoile, July 1, l86l. Rep. 
Wm. Dailey, 1^70. Rep. 
Ellis Bierbower, 1885. Rep. 

TERRITORIAL DELEGATES TO CONGRESS 

Napoleon B. Gidding, elected Dec. 12, 1854. Dem. 
Bird B. Chapman, elected Nov. 6, 1855. Dem. 
Fenner Furguson, elected Aug. 3, 1857. Dem. 
Experience Esterbrook, Oct. 11, 1859. Dem. 
Samuel G. Daily, Oct. 9, 1860. Rep. 
Samuel G. Daily, re-elected Oct. 1862. Rep. 



lOfi HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Phineas W. Hitchcock, elected Oct. 11, 1864. Rep. 
John Taffe, elected Oct. 9, 1866. Rep. 

REPRESENTATIVES TO CONGRESS 

Lorenzo Crounse, Oct. 8, 1872. Rep. 
Frank Welch, Nov. 7, 1876. Rep. 
Thos. J. Majors, Nov. 5, 1878. Rep. 
E. K. Valentine, Nov. 5, 1H78. Rep. 
A. J. Weaver, March 7, 1883. Rep. 
James Laird, March 7, 1883. Rep. Re-elected 1884 
and 1886. G. L. Laws appointed to fill unexpired term. 
G. W. Dorsey, March 5, 1885. Rep. Re-elected 1886. 
John A. McShane, Nov., 1886. Dem. 

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, FOURTH DISTRICT 

E. J. Haiuer, Rep., 48rd congress. 

" 44th 

Wm. L. Stark, Pop. 45th " 

" 46th " 

" 47th " 

E. H. Hinshaw, Rep. , 48th " 

" 49th " 

U. S. SENATORS 

John M. Thayer, 1867 to 1873. 

T. W. Tipton, 1S67 to 1875. 

P. W. Hitchcock, 1871 to 1877. 

Algernon S. Paddock, 1875 to 1881. 

Alvin Saunders, 1877 to 1883. 

C. H. VanWyck, 1881 to 1887. 

Chas. F. Manderson, 1883 to 1895. 

A. S. Paddock, 1887 to 1893. 

W. V. Allen, 1893 to 1901. 

John M. Thurston, 1895 to 1901. 

M. L. Hay ward, 1899; died before taking seat. 

Chas. H. Dietrich, 1901 to 1905. 

Ezra Millard, 1901 to 1907. 

E. J. Burkett, 1905 to 1911. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



107 



ADJUTANT GENERALS 

G. A. Alexander, appointed, 1879. 



E. P. Rogen, 


1883. 


J. C. Connell, 


1885. 


C. V. Baird, 


1886. 


A. N. Cole, 


1887. 


Victor Vifquain, ' 


1891. 


J. D. Gage, 


1893. 


P. H. Barry, 


1895. 


J. M. Killian, 


1901. 


L. W. Colby, 


1901. 


J. H. Culver, 


1903 to date 



108 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




SE^^ARD COUNTY 




William H. Seward 



CHAPTER VI. 



Change of the covinty name— Democratic Nebraska— First Repub- 
lican Congressman— Survey— Thomas Grahams diary— First settlement 
—The McKinley and Morton story— Tomy West— The Morgans" Indian 
Troubles— Frontier life and privations— Bright spots— Fii-st bridge on 
the Blue— Ranches and their settlement— Hole in the ground— Crossing 
of the Beaver a bad place— Great freight trains— Turkeys in the tiain— 
Mormtms— A Missourian and his pigs— John Scott— First settlement in 
"G" precinct— First homestead entry— First land entered -Settlement at 
Milford— Made a ford and placed a mill by it— The old speculator held 
the Seward mill site— The future site of Seward county-seat problem 
in the distance— County an attache oi Lancaster— First election remi- 
niscence of the settlement -Saw Seward by the eye of faith— Sad death 
—Arrival at homestead— A child to be born. 



110 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Seward County did not from the first bear its present 
honored name. It will be remembered that Nebraska was 
or(?anized under a democratic administration and the student 
of history can hardly fail to observe how carefully the party 
in power were to leave the names of their statesmen before 
the world in naming the counties of the infant territory. Thus 
we have the names of Richardson, Johnson, Cass, Sarpy, 
Douglas, Burt, Pierce, etc. This list included Greene which 
was given in honor of Greene, the Missouri statesman. This 
tract of wilderness was but little known or thought of in 
antebellum days. 

It will be remembered that everything was thoroughly 
democratic in Nebraska until after the fall election of 1860, 
when agitation and a general awakening resulted in break- 
ing the democratic ice and a new political era dawned upon 
the territory. That year Samuel G. Daily was elected, to 
congress, being the first republican delegate to represent the 
people at Washington. Soon after Mr. Lincoln's inaugura- 
tion the swarm of democratic territorial officers from gov- 
ernor down were relieved and all things political were speedi- 
ly changed. 

Mr. Greene had proved to be a rebel. This county was 
yet unorganized and therefore was under the control of the 
legislature and they were not long in determining that no 
part of this sacred soil under their control should bear the 
dishonored name of a rebel. 

Hon. Wm. H. Seward was then Secretary of State and 
was a rising star and his great name was justly honored and 
perpetuated in naming this beautiful county Seward, and 
among the thousands of dwellers here from that time to the 
present, we believe the universal verdict has been Amen! 
Thus the name of our grand, rich and beautiful county bears 
a name that stands high among our country's immortals. We 
are glad to place his picture at the head of this chapter. 

Prom the best evidence at command we conclude the 
lands of the county were surveyed in the summer of 1857. 
We note in Thomas Graham's diary kept while examining 
general surveys that he and party visited Town 10 Range 3 
Sec. 34 or sec. 35 on July 13th IH58. We refer the reader for 
particulars to his dial on another page. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 111 

It will probably always remain on unsettled question as 
to who was the first white settler within our present bounda- 
ries. We have a tradition that two men (single men we take 
it) by the names of McKinley and Morton made settlement 
near where Ruby now stands in about the summer of 1858. 
In the legend it is stated that these men got into trouble with 
the Indians and that they killed two Indians and vacated to 
save their scalps. The graves of these Indians, or supposed 
Indian graves, were pointed out to us in the summer of 1865 
by the Morgans. They were located on the hill-side east 
and south of Ruby near the old Morgan settlement. The 
Morgans claim to have made settlement in 1858 on the river 
about four miles north of Milford, but it seems probable they 
were considerably olf on their dates. 

From Mr. Graham's notes we learn that there was a 
small settlement at time of his visit, but he fails to give the 
names. This might have been the Morgans as the place 
was located on the east bank of the river, but it was proba- 
bly the McKinley and Morton settlement, later occupied by 
the Morgans. Rev. Walter Morgan, son of Thomas Mor- 
g<in and grandson of Daniel Morgan, relates that he was 
born in Otoe county Jan, 27th, 1858, and says the family 
came to Blue river in the spring of 1861, and this corre- 
sponds well with a conversation the writer had with Daniel 
Morgan in the summer of 1861 at the Salt Basin in regard to 
his settlement. Mr. Thomas West, who is generally believed 
to be the first permanent settler, is much mystified as to 
dates of his settlement. He claimed to have settled on the 
South Blue at the point where the West's mills are located 
in 1859. I. M. T. Johnson in his historic notes says the fami- 
ly located there in the spring of I860, just how he found out 
we don't know. We understand that he and family had start- 
ed to the Colorado gold mines with a company of gold seek- 
ers and fell out of ranks and made his home in the wilder- 
ness. If this is correct, and putting this and that together, 
we conclude Mr. Johnson is right. 

This cut-off road, as we called it, was opened in the spring 
of 1860 and if his company followed this road it could not be 
earlier than the spring of 1860 and we further conclude that 
if the company had followed the old trail via the Platte river 



112 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

route that he would not have drifted so far from that trail, 
near seventy miles distant. It is generally conceded how- 
ever that he had the honor of being first permanent settler 
and the bitter experiences of his first years made him feel 
that he was here quite soon enough, and it seems that the 
Indians thought Mr. West a little premature in his occupa- 
tion, as in the summer of 1861 a strolling band of them burned 
up his cabin and about all his worldly goods except the 
cattle. Will the reader just for a moment think what a ter- 
rible condition that poor helpless family must have been in, 
without a shelter, without provisions or clothing except 
what was on their backs and without a neighbor within less 
than twenty-five or thirty miles away over on Salt creek. 
We distinctly recollect seeing the old pioneer in the same 
fall at Nebraska City whither he had come eighty miles with 
an ox team. His load of merchandise consisted of a half 
barrel of wild grape wine and a few bushels of wild grapes 
which he had hauled all those long weary miles to try and 
trade for a few articles of necessity. 

This is but a sample of what the advance guard of civili- 
zation endured while planting these foundations. 

If all the sad stories of privation and sorrow could be 
told it would make the heart sick, however there were some 
bright spots to consider. There was plenty of wild game in 
the wilderness. Elk, antelope and buffalo were in plenty 
and wild turkeys were abundant and wild fruit was plentiful 
along the river and fuel was close at the door, but then fre- 
quently the Indians would put in an appearance in the fall 
when the grass was dry and they would fire it and thus the 
game would all disappear. This would result in distress in 
the loss of game and more; it would be most serious to the 
little live stock of the country. Many times the little hay 
mowed with a sythe would be burned at these times. It 
would seem that everything would conspire to ruin the hopes 
of the settler. In 1860 the business men of Nebraska City 
began to feel the necessity of having a shorter and better 
road to Fort Kearney on the Platte than the long torturous 
winding way via Salt Creek ford, (now Ashland) and the 
Platte valley away around "Robin Hood's barn" so they sent 
a crew of men to spy out a new road and build necessary 
bridges. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 113 

They located a new road passing westward through the 
present town site of Syracuse and crossed Salt Creek at a 
rocky-ford near where Rocka now stands and Blue river, 
just by the forks on the Seward and Saline County line, and 
on to Walnut creek and the crossing of the Beaver about 
four miles west of the present town of Beaver Crossing and 
thence passed into York County and on to its junction with 
the old road near Fort Kearney. A good substantial bridge 
was built across the Blue. Soon the trail was broken and it 
is most astonishing the amount of traffic that passed over 
this road. This caused numerous ranches to be opened 
and thus formed a new epoch in the settlement of the county. 

J. L. Davison opened one, one mile west of the bridge. 
W. J. Thompson opened one on Walnut creek and John E. 
Pouce opened one at the crossing of the Beaver "all about the 
same time in 1862. This enormous travel and traffic brought 
the county into notice and occasionally a weary immigrant 
would get tired and stop and take a 'claim and little settle- 
ments were formed. 

Soon other parties started ranches, among these we re- 
member John Leonard and A. J. Wallingford. The first 
named was near John E. Fence's at the Beaver, and Walling- 
ford's at the bridge. Daniel Millspaw opened one in York 
county just west of the line which was known as the hole in 
the ground. 

We must tell a little story about Uncle Dan's experience 
at his ranch which was a place of considerable notoriety. A 
number of travellers had camped by the ranch. It was a 
wreckless crowd of young fellows that was in for fun. Un- 
cle Dan had a huge fire place in his dugout with a very large 
open chimney that did not reach much above the surface of 
the ground. The old man was busy cooking his supper on 
the great fire place. The night was dark as pitch and the 
fire caused a bright light to shine out of the chimney. These 
fellows crept up and looked down and saw an opportunity to 
create a real sensation. One fellow, more of a "dare devil" 
than the rest, having on a pair of high rubber boots con- 
cluded to scare Uncle Dan. So while the old man was busy 
with a frying pan of meat and another pan of griddle cakes, 
the "devil" jumped down the chimney into the fire. 



114 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

It was a mistake of course, but the supper and the scattered 
lire brands created a scene of the wildest confusion. Uncle 
Dan was frightened out of a year's growth thinking the Old 
Nick was after him sure enough. Pranks of a similar nature 
were of frequent occurrance at the ranches. Many things 
occurred of a far more desperated character. That old ranch 
at the crossing of the Beaver is said to be a place where many 
revolting scenes occurred. 

The old ranch consisted in part of great excavation and 
it was generally surmised that many poor fellows found a 
way in there that never found a way out again. There was 
much brush in the vicinity and there were many fine horses 
lost in the maize that the owners never found. It was a very 
disreputable place to say the least. Bad whiskey was an 
article of traftic accompanied with gambling and the usual at- 
tendants. 

In the spring of 1868 there was quite a number of new 
settlers located along the South Blue and near the Camden 
bridge. There were a few others that settled in the west 
neighborhood as early as 1H61. Orin Johnson is said to have 
located there that year also James West, a brother of Uncle 
Tomy. Gen. Victor Vifquain lived near the forks just in the 
edge of Saline County. In 1863 James Johnson located near 
the forks in Saline County, but a little later moved across 
the line and bought Jackson Wallingford's ranch at the 
bridge. Old Mr. Bingaman settled just east of the Camden 
ranch 

Mr. Stanton opened a farm just in the edge of Saline 
County two miles west of Camden The great road had by 
this time become a place of immense traffic; it is safe to say 
that thousands of teams travelled this road every week laden 
with all kinds of merchandise. The Byram Bros., succes- 
sors to Majors, Russell and Wadell, sent out vast numbers of 
trains consisting of twenty-six great covered wagons to the 
train, each drawn by six yokeof cattle making three hundred 
and twelve oxen to each train. These were known as prairie 
schooners. There were thousands of horse teams, some- 
times six great caparisoned horses to a wagon, then the 
small fry were innumerable for multitude, small loads with 
single teams, one yoke of oxen, span of horses, sometimes 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 115 

ponies, sometimes cows in the yoke. All sorts of people 
were in the moving throng, some in carriages and arranged 
with all the accompaniments of wealth, and others looked 
hard up, many looked very shabby indeed. There were 
droves of cattle and droves of horses and once we saw a 
drove of thousands of turkeys on the way to the mountains. 

In the mighty throng were many rebels from Missouri 
that thought best to move. They were impudent and very 
saucy. Many of them blood thirsty but they thought best to 
get out of Missouri when the boys in blue had got possession 
there. Some were seeking gold, some were freighting, 
some were going just to be going. It was a motley crew. 

Then every few days there were throngs of Mormons 
made up of a heterogenious mass of Europeans wending their 
way to Salt Lake. They were a sorry looking mass of hu- 
manity. 

There were one or two attempts to form a settlement in 
"A" precinct as early as 1^68. One old Missourian moved up 
there and settled north of the present village of German- 
town in the spring of 1863. We happened to notice the old 
fellow driving a drove of shoats up the long ridge between 
the Salt Basin and the oak groves. He remained during the 
summer but became dissatisfied and concluded to go back to 
his wife's relations, but the pigs had found such good picking 
among the oak trees that were loaded with acorns that they 
decided not to go back, and they (the pigs) become the first 
permanent settlers. They grew and multiplied beyond meas- 
ure. The only ones to dispute their rights were the vandal 
hunters from the Salt Basins that decimated their ranks in 
filling their pork barrels. For some years these wild pigs 
were a source of profit to the first settlers. They not only se- 
cured meat, but occasionally some luckless old sow and litter 
of pigs would be captured and brought back to civilized pig 
life. 

John Scott was the first permanent settler in that region. 
He moved there iix the spring of 1864 and was followed by 
John Owens and family during the summer. They held the 
fort alone until the spring of 1866, when John Royce, 
Judge J. D. Main, J. D. Olney and Warren Brown came. 

The first real attempt at settlement in "G"' precinct was 



1 1() llisr(im' OK SKWAUn county, NKlUiASWA 

iiKulc ill tlic siiiiiiiicr of 1S();{, wlicn Win. Wyiiiorc. hi'otlier 
of SiMii \V.viiior»\ lor wlioiii the city of Wyinore w;is niuiied, 
and Mr. ()linst(>ii(l settled on the l?lu(\ Mr. Wyinore on ilu> 
liiiul Hint hiter IxH-anie tlie lioinesteiul of VV. W. C\)x, and 
Oliiisteiid on the ()sc:ir li(>ni(>cK"er I'nnii. lint it soon tr;ins- 
|)ired tliati llu'se men wertMleserlcrs IVoin t lu» ITnion iU'iny uiid 
al'tiM- diu> consideration witJiont l)ein^ arrest(Ml tliey retunnul 
to duty, sorvod tlioir tiiii(>oiit and were lioiuM'ahly discluirj^ed. 

Mr. IvolxM't T. (iriile made the lirst. homestead entry .Ian- 
nary l\ 1S();{. nunilxM' 7 in this land district, in th(» (Nist(>rn 
part ol' section 'J I . .township 1 I, rani;"e ',\ east, hut he was not 
ahl(> to occupy t]i(> land until the s\)rinji: of l^tVI. W. W. 
C'o.x made a trade* witli Mr. Wyuiore for his claim (a prt^-iMn])- 
tion) in tli(> winter of Isivl and lionicstoadod it in March. He 
s(>t to work' to form settlement and siM'uriHlieco-opevationof 
Mr. dale. lion. William liiday, (iraiulpa David Imlay and 
bis two other sons, l)a\id and .losepli, and these folios all 
nun'cMl to tlu> set t hMiKMit in tli(> i^irly sprins^:; hut Mr. Cox 
did not move until DectMiibiM' 1, ISlil. Dui'in^- that summer 
old Mr. Dunaway made settlement also but died during the 
t>arly fall before 1lit> family came. The account of bis death 
and burial will be found elsewhere in these paji:es. 

The lirst entry {^\' public lands in this county was made 
l)y h). \j. MIlis in the summer of 1S()I in section KS, township 
1 I. rani;i> ;'. east. Mr. I^'.llis was at the time sojourneyinjj: on 
Salt ('r(>(>k. Ih> rt^turniHl to Missouri where luM'cmained un- 
til the s])rinii- i^l' ISS(i. wluui h(* made settlement on section S 
o\' same township. 

In t he sprini»- of 1S()4 .). L. Davison, with the ludi^ of 
John ('adman and Wm. b"'ields of Lancaster county, located 
the steam wai^'on road that shortened the route from Nebras- 
k'a City to b'oi't l\(>arney and which led by Yankee Hill on 
Salt (^r(>(>l\, the prt^i>osed site cd' Mil ford, and intersected 
the old trail at Walnut Creek, and Mr. l)a\idson ])iiIUh1 ui> 
stalces at the Camden I'ancb and movinl to the new propo.sed 
town of Milford w1um'(» he opened a nmv uj) tcvdate ranch on 
the si^ht of Uv. Laiiridi;(>'s Hospital rii::ht near tlu» old ford. 

Some tinu* durinii* the sunmier of lS(>i\c>n(* .huliiv Hilton 
t)f Cincinnatti, throu^'h the ludp o\' a brother-in law, ,\oo 
Mason o\' Lancaster county, entered a part of section 21, 



IIISTOK'N' OK SKVVAKI) CorNTY, NKHIiASKA I 1 < 

tovviislii|) I I, I'iin^c ;> cast, f'(iil)raciii<4' the mill site now occu- 
|)i('(l l).v the Sowai'd mills and tJx" line j^rovc timber on the 
Moftitt estate. '^Phis provM^d a serious menace to this eom- 
miinit-y fof a. nurnbei" of year's, which is t'nily discussed in 
another i)lac<'. Mr. Hilton was a hard old specidaior, such 
as the ea,i"ly settler just, loved to desi)ise. 

Tn 1Hf')4 tlie larid u])on wliich the city of Sewa,rd now 
stands yet beloni^ed to tJie e()vernment, and had no occu- 
pant or claiinant, and the land where Millord now stands 
was occu|)ied by only on(^ laniily, and the ])ersons named 
heretofore oidy about, t-wenly-five votes in the entire county, 
yet the con)in<.^ county-seat (pjestion be<<an to be aj^itated 
and was a matter of dec-p concern to the; ])eoi)le in (wo.ry 
l)art of the county. As y(;t, howc^ver, tliere had been no 
niov(^ in tlie nuitt(^r of county organization. 

The c^ounty was yet a,n attache oC Ijancaster county. 
In October, infU, the tirst, election was held at the cabin of 
li. T. Gale lor- float repres<!nta,tive of the Terr-itorial Assem- 
bly. It so luippened that W. W. ('ox, yet a I'esident of fjan- 
caster, but whose interest was in Sewai-d county, was a 
member of tlie Tiei)ublica,n convention of Lancastei" county 
and as Lancaster luid one; dcdej^ate to the legislature and 
was cou])l(!d with Seward and all the wild West for a, float, 
just at the opj)ortune moment Mr. (^ox sprung a motion that 
Mr. Wm. Imlay of S(!ward county, b(; tlu; nominee for the 
float. The motion was put and went through with a whoop 
f)efore th(> other fellows had time to think. W(dl, all went 
w<dl that ended w(dl, but we wen; a, little chagrined when 
we learned that only seven votes were cast- in Seward coun- 
ty, but our candidate caujjfht all of them. Tlu' voters that 
cast thciir- ballot on that October day into a cij^ar box, held 
by th(! younf^ lad, i^'red Wool(!y, seated in the front end of 
his father's covered waj;on, wfvre as follows: .J. Ij. Davidscm, 
li. T. (Jule, (^randfathcir David Inday, Job Reynold, Wm. 
Imlay, \). \\ Imlay and Joseph Imlay. 

Mr. Imlay was elected and served his i)eo])le weli. Ono. 
p(!culiar feature of his legislature career was, iie did not 
have any railroad pass, but he simply took his foot in his 
hand and walked as far as Plattsmouth and thus scjuarely 
earned his mileage and was not under any obligation to any 



118 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

corporation. In as much as we were considered to blame 
for his election, we wei-e required to do Mr. Imlay's chores, 
cut his fire wood and look after his matters generally while 
he was in Omaha. 

Now will the reader kindly allow the author to digress 
from the historical long enough to tell how it happened 
that we became a citizen of Seward county. The winter of 
1863 and 64 was a cold and dreary one. Many things had 
occurred to make our lives anything but pleasant andwe, i. e. 
wife and I, were in a deep study to know just what to do for 
the future. The salt business had completely played out 
and we found that our "occupation had gone." With an 
ever increasing young family on our hands to provide for, 
sickness invaded our home and it had become a matter of 
deep solicitude as to what had best be done to secure a com- 
petency for the future. After a long discussion of the pros 
and cons of a life on a homestead, we made the firm resolve 
to try and build for ourselves and little ones, a home. It 
was an earnest struggle. We knew but little about farming 
and the serious sickness of wife for nearly a year had much 
discouraged us and we were so impoverished that it would 
take a whole dozen of us to make a respectable shadow. But 
the resolve was taken and one bright morning in February 
on foot and alone we started to look up a claim. With the 
early settler, timber was deemed a prime necessity as there 
were no railroads over which lumber and coal could be 
brought. The settler must have timber. We took Greeley's 
advice and went west, of course. Our way led across the" 
hills of Middle Creek and the great plain toward the Blue. 
After a long weary tramp, just as the bright winter sun was 
fading from sight, there opened to our view the grand val- 
ley, a scene of transcendant beauty, with the long lines of 
timber stretching far away to the southward and to the 
northward with the converging lines of Plum Creek and 
Lincoln Creek. To us it was a grander scene than Moses 
had while on Pisgahs top. It was an enchanting and rap- 
turous scene. We said deep down mour hearts, "this is the 
place we long have sought and we will go and possess it." 
As we stood gazing at the meandering streams converging 
to a common center, we saw by the eye of faith a city 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 119 

crowning that beautiful plateau. Our faith from that mo- 
ment was "like an anchor to the soul, both sure and stead- 
fast." The city of our dreams is right there with all its 
beauty and grandeur. Shortly after this we secured a 
claim by the purcha>sing of the prior right of another claim- 
ant, and we struck for Nebraska City on foot to make our 
homestead entry. Our homestead entry was made March 
27, 1864, but for various causes we did not move until De- 
cember 1. 

We had a long hard struggle with adverse circumstances 
before it was possible to occupy the new home. The Indian 
trouble of that memorable j'ear was ever before us like a 
horrible night mare. 

After our return from the last Indian scare and stam- 
pede we visited the new home to put up hay for the winter 
when a very sorrowful and pathetic incident occurred. 
Father Dunaway, an aged man, had taken a homstead up 
Plum Creek on section 3, township 11, range 3 east. His 
family had not yet come to the county and the old man was 
living alone in a new lumber shanty that he had hastily 
built. Grandfather Imlay, also a very aged man occasion- 
ally went up and spent a little time visiting with the new 
neighbor. So one bright summer afternoon Mr. Imlay 
called to see Mr. Dunaway. The shanty was solitary and 
alone. Father Imlay thought that his friend might just be 
away somewhere on the place. He picked up a book that 
lay on the table and read a while waiting his return- Bye 
and bye he began to search after hallooing. About ten rods 
from the shanty he found the ghastly sight of his friend 
cold and stiff in a field of wallowed grass. He at once has- 
tened home and reported to his son David, who at once 
mounted a horse and hurried to the hay field on Lincoln 
Creek, where is now the farm of Lewis Anderson, where 
Wm. Imlay, R. Y. Gale and W. W. Cox were at work. We 
were thunderstruck at the appalling intelligence. A hur- 
ried consultation was had. The hour was getting late and 
neighbors were few and far between and we were five miles 
from the dead man. There was not an officer in Seward 
county It was called to mind that Mr. Cox was Justice of 
the Peace in Lancaster county and that Seward county was 



120 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

an attache of said county and that he probably came nearest 
having proper jurisdiction than any other available person. 
The next serious question was where to get a coroner's jury. 
Mr. Gale thought that enough men could be found in the 
Morgan settlement, so a venue was hastily written with a 
pencil on a scrap paper taken from a memorandum. Mr. 
Gale was sworn in as special Constable and at once mounted 
a horse and instructed not to spare horse flesh. Just as the 
sun was sinking behind the western hills, our company had 
gathered at the scene of their dead friend. Those present 
w^ere R. T. Gale, special constable. Father Imlay, William 
David and Joseph Imlay, Job Reynolds, Thomas and Will- 
iam Morgon and W. W." Cox. 

It w^as a most solemn scene, a little meadow nearly sur- 
rounded by a beautiful fringe of timber; a calm autumn even- 
ing, a sad stillness in the presence of death. With uncov- 
ered heads and uplifted hands the jury took the solemn oath 
which, considering all the surroundings, made a deep and last- 
ing impression upon all present. Full forty years have now 
passed, but in spite of all efforts, tears dim my eyes as I 
write of this sorrowful event. The verdict of the jury was 
that they "verily believed that the old man came to his death 
from the effects of cramp colic. " A rough board coftin was 
hastily improvised of lumber from the shanty, and by the 
"moonbeam's misty light" we buried him beneath the waving 
branches of a sturdy oak, there to rest until called on the 
morning of resurrection. We, late at night, returned to our 
homes with sorrowing hearts because the death angel had 
so early visited our infant settlement. His goods and chat- 
tels were properly cared for and turned over to the widow 
upon her arrival. 

All things were made ready for our removal to our new 
home, and on the morning of Nov. 30, 1864 we loaded up the 
remainder of our earthly possessions with the assistance 
of Hon. Wm. Imlay and started up the long ridge north - 
w^est of the Basin toward our new home and arrived there 
on the first day of December. The day we reached the home- 
stead was cold and gloomy, and the sight of our beautiful 
grove made us glad. We hastily built a huge fire with dry 
wood at hand, and while the north wind whistled making a 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 121 

melancholy sound as it rustled throug-h the trees, we rejoiced 
in the comfort of a good lire at our own home. Our little 
cabin, although crude in the extreme, with its great fire- 
place was a home of comfort and pleasant memories 

There were four families of us now in the community 
and we put in the time as best we could. We visited back 
and forth frequently; we chased rabbits, gathered wild 
grapes, trapped quail, etc. 

Soon after our arrival, about the 8th of December, there 
was a cold night with much snow on the ground. In the 
small hours of the night a gentle rapping by Joseph Imlay 
was heard. He brought the refreshing news that a child 
Was about to be born at the home of Mr. Gale who lived just 
across Plum creek east of the Bemis home. Wife hurriedly 
dressed, old Nig and Darb, our oxen, were hitched up to the 
old wagon, and away they went down the bottom and across 
the town site that was not yet a city, and lo the bank of the 
creek. Here the poor oxen were chained to the wagon and 
the good wife was compelled to slide down a huge snow drift 
to the creek. When she arrived at the house she found that 
Miss Clara Gale had arrived just a little ahead of the ox 
team. This was the first white child born in "G*' precinct. 
Miss Gale is now resident of Portland Oregon and is said to 
be an intelligent and accomplished lady. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Starvation near at hand — Perils of the Night — Moffit's visit— New com- 
ers to different localities First boy of north half of county — First 
Sermon — First house on the site of Seward — Post-Office — Sabbath 
School — Slow progress in opening farms — Going to mill — Cold corn 
cake— Indian scare and panic— Early comers on the south Blue — 
First mill —First orchard— The last buftalo—First Post-Office— Mor- 
gan settlement increased — New settlers at Milford-Moved the mill 
Milford founded — First county officers— Unborn Seward — A great 

Empire — First tax levy Bridges — Ctranty seat agitation — First 

store— Camden school— Camden mills — B. & M. R. R. abandons 
Camden — Milford eager for the contest— Seward not ready— Seward 
Surveyed — Three cornered tight— No choice — Second election — Mil- 
ford makes a point— Twelve votes thrown out — A wrangle ensues — 
A curious record. 



The winter of 1864 and 1865 was a stormy one and rath- 
er cheerless. By some mismanagement there was not a 
sufficient stock of provisions laid in by the settlers to secure 
them against want should the winter prove severe. The 
writer was more fortunate than his neighbors in that he had 
by two long and wearisome trips to mill before moving se- 
cured a thousand pounds of flour and meal, but he had such 
good opportunities to lend it in the early spring when the 
rivers and creeks were overflowing and the whole settlement 
came near starving. There was not an ounce of breadstuffs 
in the settlement. There was no meat, no potatoes, and 
cruel as it may seem to tell it, one milk pan of shelled corn 
had to be divided up to keep the families from starvation; 
and there was scarcely a pound of boiled corn left when a 
load of provisions arrived that had been storm stayed and 
water bound. What a feast we had then! 

In the month of February we had a very heavy rain. 
Fortunately for the family, Mr. Wm. Imlay had just re- 
turned from Omaha, else this would have been a more lurid 
picture. Mr. Imlay and also Mr. Gale had built their cabins 
on low ground, never dreaming that the river could get on 
su"--!! a bender. Understand, the ground was frozen. The 
rain fell in torrents for about forty hours. On the second 
night at dark the river had risen comparatively little, and 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 123 

all went to bed not thinking of what terrors tliat awful night 
would bring. 

Now to make the situation plain, we would say Mr. Im 
lay lived on the west side of the river. Mr. Gale and Grand- 
pa Imlay lived on the east side of Plum creek, and W. W. 
Cox lived on the east bank of the river. So we were power- 
less to render each other assistance, except Dave and Joe Im- 
lay were able to save Mr. Gale's family. 

In the dead of night Mr. Gale discovered water rushmg 
in at the cabin door. At this moment the water had sur- 
rounded the house and things looked perilous in the extreme. 
The only thing possible to do was to carry his wife and child 
to the roof of the cabin and wrap them up as best he could, 
and let them remain in that cold winter rain in a frightful 
wind until he could wade out through the ice water, some of 
the way waist deep, and go over a mile to grandpa Imlay's 
for help. A team was secured and the family was rescued 
just in time, for before morning dawned there was not a ves- 
tige of the house to be seen as the wild waters rolled entire- 
ly over it. What caused the sudden rise was this: the ra- 
vines leading to the river and creek were full of snow drifts 
which held the water back until the body of water became 
irresistible, and it all broke into the streams like a thief in 
the night. Mr. Imlay's family were awakened by a child 
crying in the night (David M.), Mr. Imlay got out of bed to 
attend to the child, and to his horror stepped into ice water 
knee deep. He rushed to the door and opened it, and a 
great volume of water rushed- in that was appalling. The 
only possible show to get the family out of the house was to 
tear a window out at the back part af the house, which lead 
to higher ground. He got out himself and the frantic wife 
helped the children out, and he had to make many trips 
through the ice water for quite a distance to a hay i-'tack. 
He carried all of the children, and there were lots of thom, 
also his wife and then some bedding and provisions. They 
took refuge on the haystack for four days and were entirely 
surrounded by water. For the first day or so they had a lit- 
tle patch of ground upon which they could build a fire, then 
as the waters continued to rise there was no place to cook or 
build a fire. The haystack was all that was above the surg- 



124 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

ino- waves of the mighty river. After four days and nights 
of suffering with cold and hunger the family were rescued. 
The wild waters had somewhat subsided, and Mr. Imlay on 
one side of the river and the writer on the other, two tall 
trees were chosen, and we cut them so the branches would 
lock, and the family were carried over. 

Were it not for getting into this story too much, we 
might tell of our two unsuccessful attempts at their rescue 
in which we came so near losing our life. In the interesting 
historic letter of Mrs. Sarah F. Anderson that matter is well 
explained. 

During that winter, Lewis Moffitt visited the neighbor- 
hood and entered the future town site and homesteaded a 
quarter of land on upper Lincoln creek near the present 
Marysville mill, which later he sold to old Mr. Hartman. 
Mr. Moftitt moved to the settlement in the July following. 

In the spring of li^65 there were added to the settlement 
the Dunaway family, Richard Sampson, John N. Roberts, 
Thomas Skillman. w^ho settled in the edge of "F" precinct on 
Lincoln creek, and John Durland who settled in ''C" precinct 
near the present site of Staplehurst. 

In the summer of 1864 Thomas L. Rodgers made a set- 
tlement near the Morgans. 

During the spring of 1865, the first white boy was born 
in the north half of the county. On another page may be 
found a picture of the lad. It was Lincoln W. Cox, born 
March 16. 

In June, Rev. Dr. McKesson, of Lancaster, visited the 
community and preached the first sermon in all this region. 
This had to serve our i^urpose in that line until October, 
when the Rev. E. L. Clark drifted down from among the 
icebergs of northern New York and preached to us. The 
first sermon was preached in one of God's first temples, a 
grove, near our cabin. Rev. Clark preached at our home. 
Although we had no preacher or preaching during the sum- 
mer, we met from sabbath to sabbath and maintained a bible 
class. There w^ere not enough children of school age to or- 
ganize a sabbath school. There were yet but four old 
enough. These four children, however, were properly 
cared for. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 125 

Mr. Moffitt built the first cabin on the future town site. 
It was built of hewed logs and stood on the ground now oc- 
cupied by Mrs. Moifitt in the southeast part of the city It, 
was what we called a double log house, having two rooms. 
For the next year or two that house belonged to the public. 
We had it for sabbath school, for an election booth, for a 
church when a preacher happened that way, and finally we 
made a post-office of it, with its owner as the first in the line 
of Seward's honorable postmasters. The salary was a great 
inducement, "you know," one dollar per month. 

During the summer of 1864, thirty acres of sod were 
bi'oken on three farms, viz., Wm. Imlay's, D. P. Imlay's and 
R. T. Gale's, and during 1865 about one hundred fifty acres 
were broken on seven farms. 

It is undoubtedly a surprise to the casual reader that 
no more was accomplished in the way of opening up the 
farms these first two seasons, but to those who "went 
through the mill," it is a surprise that we were able to ac- 
complish so much. 

It may be well to state something of our environments. 
First the settlers were all as poor as "Job's turkeys," that 
had to lean against a stump while gobblin. We had but 
few and very poor teams. Corn was two dollars per bushel 
and money did not grow on our trees. Our breaking plows 
were crude, generally old, and more fit for the scrap pile 
than for business. Could the reader have seen the writer 
one hot summer morning with a pair of old dull plow shares 
strapped together and swung over his shoulder, trudging 
down the valley nine miles to old man Morgan's, and then 
watched the poor old soul as he pounded away on those 
shares for half a day, that were heated by a cob fire, and then 
followed us home again, foot-sore, weary and half starved; 
then watched our preambulations running through the 
brush perhaps for miles hunting the oxen; and again seen 
us with the old oxen traipsing ofi: seventy-five miles to mill, 
camping out at night and eating cold johny-cake: could he 
have seen all these struggles to keep soul and body togeth- 
er, while we were menaced by Indians begging us out of 
countenance, and frequently showing a spirit of arrogance 
and impudence, so that it seemed dangerous to leave our 



127 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

families any lenj^th of time, the reader could more fully ap- 
preciate the situation. 

Frequently, notwitlistandino^ it seemed so dangerous to 
leave home, we were compelled to scour distant settlements 
in Lancaster, Otoe and Cass counties for meager supplies of 
provisions. Oh! it was so pleasant fording streams, get- 
ting stuck in the mud, perhaps breaking a wagon tongue or 
axle forty miles from anywhere, with scarcely any money 
and no credit. (Our wife's relatives were left far behind in 
the old states.) With but a m3ager supply of clothing we 
were compelled to struggle through the weary years of the 
first occupation. We had to make "bricks without straw," 
but we made them all the same. Houses had to be built 
without proper tools, and of such material as the country 
afforded, viz., logs and prairie sod. Every class of work 
had to be accomplished under most discouraging conditions. 
Iron bridges were not furnished then. We had to go to the 
timber, cut, haul and pile logs in the river as best we could 
during the day, and perhaps a flood would wash them all 
away before another day had dawned. Sometimes we have 
wondered that we did not all give up the struggle and go 
back to the wife's relations as some of the weak kneed people 
did. Happily most of us stuck to the text and waited the 
dawm of better days w4ien our wife's relations came to us. 

During the great Indian scare, August 1864, just after 
the terrible Minnesota massacre, and about the time the red- 
skins had plundered the Plum creek settlement west of 
Kearney and murdered many of the people, a general panic 
ensued all over the frontier settlements. This was at the 
time of the exodus from Salt creek, mentioned on another 
page. 

This little community of four families also took fright 
and had prepared to vacate. Mr. Gale happened to be away 
from home at the time and his family was left to be cared 
for by the neighbors. The families had all gathered at 
Grandpa Im lay's on Plum creek and had prepared for flight, 
when Wm. Imlay's old wagon tire burst, and before it was 
possible to get it in shape the scare subsided. This catas- 
trophe proved a blessing in disguise for it saved the infant 
settlement. It is gratifying to know how the pioneers stuck 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 126 

together in timer of danger. The other f amihes would not 
go and leave one helpless family to perishal one, but stayed 
with him and his, to take a share in whatever trouble might 
come. Thus by this accident, these people were saved from 
sacrificing their homes. 

The year 1865 brought a few scattering settlers to vari- 
ous localities. We note that this year brought to the South 
Blue, Mr. A. E. Buzzard and family (we have not been able 
to get his first name neither his exact locality,) C. G. W. 
Clark and Columbus Clark settled southeast of the present 
town of Beaver Crossing and Isaiah and Philip Michael set- 
tled on what is now known as the Migott farm. 

A little further down the river in the Johnson Neighbor- 
hood, 1864, brought David Barton and Samuel Englehouft,and 
1865 there came the Campbell families, also the Wilsons, the 
McCrockens and Okeefes. We note by further scearch that 
Wm. J. Clark settled in the neighborhood of the Wests in 
1862. 

Jesse R. Johnson settled in 1864 two and a half miles 
above West's. This year Mr. West built our tirst mill, a 
small combination of saw and grist mill. He put in an old 
fashioned corn cracker and it was a God-send to the com- 
munity. Mr. Jesse R. Johnson claims the honor of planting 
the first orchard in the county. 

As near as can be ascertaind a log school house was built 
in 1865 in the Johnson settlement in District No. '6. The 
old school-house stood on the David Barton farm. 

I. M. J. Johnson followed his parents in 1865 and took a 
homestead. 

In 1864 Thomas West, Jr., killed the last buffalo ever 
killed in Seward County. 

In 1865 James Johnson became the first post-master of 
the county at the old Camden bridge. This office distribut- 
ed mail for a vast area of country. It supplied the South 
Blue valley as far as the settlement extended and it served 
all the people of this valley through Saline and Seward 
counties. 

The Morgan settlement was increased in 1865 by the ac- 
quisition of C. J. Neihardt and family and in 1866 by I. D. 
Neihordt and family and a little further up the river Abra- 



128 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

ham and Van Hageman and also eld Mr. Wm. Hageman a 
mile further up the river. In 1H63 Joseph Stockham and 
several of his kindred settled in "O" precinct, also Chris 
Lezenby, S. R. Douglass and Chas. Smith settled in 1865. 

In 1M66 the Milford settlement secured a goodly number 
of settlers when Abram Courtright, William Reed, Henry 
Wortendzke, Samuel Brown, Mrs. E. J. Badgley, William 
and Lee Smiley, L. D. Laune, S. G. Merrium, David Tift, 
Wm. Colier, Schuyler Clark, Dr. J. L. Bondy, Geo. Gillespie, 
N. Senott, Chris, and R. C. Hooker. This year Messrs. Dav- 
ison and Reed moved the mill from Weeping Water and the 
nucleus of village of Milford was formed and bright dreams 
of a prosperous future were had by the enterprising owners. 

During the summer of 1865 the preliminary steps were 
taken to organize the county and at the Territorial election 
in October county officers were elected as follows: J. L. 
Davison, Probate Judge, Thomas West, County Clerk, C. J. 
Neihardt, Treasurer, Chapin, Sheriff and H.J. Parker, Wm. 
J. Thompson and Wm. Imlay were elected County Commis- 
sioners There is no record of the election of other county 
officers . 

The board of commissioners were thoroughly representa- 
tive men. Parker and Imlay had each served terms in the 
Territorial Legislature and Mr. Thompson was a wide awake 
business man of more than ordinary ability. Both members 
were in dead earnest to do all possible to benefit their respect- 
ive localities, but all were loyal to Seward County. They 
had each been long residents of the Territory and were well 
schooled in all the ways of the "Wild and Wooley West." 
Mr. Parker was on the lookout for the Camden interests. 
Mr. Thompson was the strong arm upon which Milford de- 
pended and Mr. Imlay was watching the interests of the yet 
unborn Seward. It is sometimes a pretty good idea to look 
out for cities yet unborn as well as for children yet to be 
born. 

The county board was constructed on wheels, and their 
meeting places were just about as it happened they could 
find a camping- place The first was held at the Walnut 
Creek ranch, the home of Thompson, next they met at Thos. 
West's at the clerk's office and then they tried another 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 129 

change and met at the Treasurer's office, 0. J. Neihardts on 
the North Blue. The county had no seat to rest on, and 
the boys could go where they pleased, so that something to 
eat was in sight and a shelter at night. These commission- 
ers had a great empire under their control, reaching westward 
their jurisdiction extended over York, Hamilton, Adams and, 
that part of Hal] County lying south of the Platte. 

We find buried up as among the "ancient and forgotten 
lore" of the county clerk's office a petition asking our com- 
missioners to have a voting precinct formed with the follow- 
ing boundaries, and also for the appointment of a justice of 
the peace for said precinct: Commencing at a point on the 
Platte river, beginning at the corner of township eleven 
north, range seven west of the 6th P. M., thence south to the 
south-east corner of township eight, thence west to the 
boundary line of Kearney county, thence north to the Platte 
river thence eastward to the place of beginning. Please ex- 
amine the map and trace the boundaries of that precinct and 
you will discover that it includes the southern portion of Hall 
and the northern portion of Adams counties. 

The 1865 tax levy made by the board was six mills on the 
dollar and if all collected would yield four hundred and twen- 
ty-three dollars, but we expect much of the personal tax may 
yet be due and uncollected. At this time there were no 
schools to maintain, no county roads, no bridges except on 
the freight roads and they were built and maintained by priv- 
ate enterprise. There was one low water bridge on the farm 
of Wni. Imlay built by the neighbors. 

The location of the county seat began to be agitated 
quite earnestly by the people in the southern portion of the 
county. The Seward people were in no condition to take a 
hand in the strife as yet as they had only a site, but no 
town by a long sight. H. W. Parker with the help of Fordice 
Roper of Beatrice, was building a grist and saw mill at Cam- 
den, and had a railroad in view, and although at the extreme 
south end of the county, tliey thought they ,had the w^orld 
by the trail. 

Camden was to be the city of the Blue valley. Wm. 
Buckhannan opened a little store. The enterprising citizens 



130 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

went over into Saline county and got a school house, (wheth- 
er they borrowed it or bought it, we are not advised.) 

They opened a school in the winter of 1866 and 1867 
with the Hon. Thomas Graham as teacher and we suppose 
one of the principal branches taught was, that all roads lead 
to Camden, the coming city of the valley. Quite a little 
town sprang up. The mill was completed in 1867. The pros- 
pects for Camden were bright, but somehow the settlement 
at Milford was gaining on them. Milford settlement could 
grow in all directions and Camden had that ugly county line 
just near their door, then during the heat of the contest the 
B.& M. folks had determined to abandon their Camden survey- 
ing and go through Saline county. The Milford people were 
anxious to have the county seat question placed before the 
people at once, but Parker was too scary and Imlay thought 
wise to defer the matter till the regular election of 1867. At 
this time a large perponderence of settlement was in the 
south half of the county. Milford was a village in fact with 
a mill and a good bridge, with a great freight road, a most 
splendid water power and a very strongly united people, ex- 
tending from east to west through the county and reaching 
southward within two miles of Camden and north as far as 
the center of "J" and "K" precincts. Seward community was 
rapidly gaining in strength, but we had some serious obsta- 
cles to contend with. We had no town. Although the com- 
munity had chosen a town site by common consent at the very 
first, long before the land had been entered in the early wint- 
er of 1865, yet the friends of Seward that were striving with 
might and main were powerless in the matter. 

For three long years the friends of Seward coaxed, im- 
portuned and finally bull dosed the owner of the land to have 
the town site surveyed and platted and put on the market. 

This is a scrap of hitherto unwritten history that is cer- 
tainly due to the men who first suggested the building of 
Seward and who stood by it in every hour of adversity when 
the proprietor seemed luke warm and careless or indifferent 
of the wants of the community. 

He wanted a town, but would not and did not perform 
his necessary part and when the contest came our votes were 
cast for the Seward of faith that only existed in our brains. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 131 

Well the contest came in October, 1867, in the shape of a three 
cornered fight with Milford, Camden and Seward with only a 
name in the contest. The returns of that election are entire- 
ly lost to the world. Uncle Tomy West, our county clerk, 
with all his good qualities was not a very good scribe or 
book-keeper and not much used to keeping county books. 
Then we guess he had no books to keep. We remember that 
Milford was in the lead and Seward a close second with Cam- 
den in the rear with thirty votes. Not much over one hun- 
dred votes were cast. The votes were canvassed and no 
place having a majority a special election was ordered. At 
the fall election the following county officers were elected: 
Wm. J. Thompson, re-elected commissioner; J. D. Main, 
county judge; Wm. H. Reed, county clerk; A. J. Walling- 
ford, sheriff; Thos. Graham, superintendent Public Instruc- 
tion; W.W. Cox, coroner(did not qualify); R.T. Gale, surveyor. 

In this election Milford gained one important point, the 
election of Wm. H. Reed as county clerk, who had a very im- 
portant part in the contest to follow. At the special county 
seat election Camden withdrew from the contest and a share 
(probably a large share) of the Camden friends wanting to kill 
oif their near neighbors threw their influence and their votes 
for Seward, the same sha^dow without a substance. 

When the votes were counted it is discovered that Seward 
had a clear majority of ten votes, but Mr. Reed, as county 
clerk and by virtue of his office, was the one to choose the 
canvassers and right here the trouble began, that led to 
almost endless litigation. Mr. Reed wanted Milford to win 
and he saw well to it that nothing should be lacking. He of 
course saw that Milford friends should be well represented 
on that canvassing board. They saw fit to throw out twelve 
Seward votes, claiming they were fraudulent, thus giving 
Milford two majority. We were never able to learn what 
twelve votes were thrown out nor on what specific grounds, 
and more we were never able to learn that there were any 
illegal votes cast, but we will not cast a reflection on the 
board for we do not know what evidence influenced their 
action. Now the trouble begins in earnest. 

At the next meeting of the county board a general 
wrangle issued, with Parker and Imlay pulling together and 



132 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Thompson and the Clerk pulling the other way. They con- 
tended and talked and almost quarreled and finally adjourned 
as Parker and Imlay assert, but in making the record of the 
meeting Mr. Reed said a resolution had been passed that the 
County Clerk be instructed to post notices m each precinct 
of the location of the County Seat. This meeting was held 
December 2nd, 1876. 

At the next meeting of the Board, which was held at the 
County Clerk's Ofiice in the little old mill at Milford, Mr. 
Imlay offered the following resolution: 

"That so much of the record of the proceedings of the 
meeting held December 2nd as relates to posting notices of 
the location of County Seat be expunged from the record." 

Imlay and Parker supported the motion and insisted that 
no such resolution had been passed. Mr. Thompson voted 
in the negative and the Clerk also assumes to record his vote 
in language following, "and so saith the County Clerk." 

This remarkable assumption of the Clerk is recorded in 
his own hand in the records of 1876, and stands out in history 
as one of the curiosities of a peculiar epoch in our history. 
At this meeting Mr. Reed had fortified himself with an 
attorney and was prepared for a fight. Major Tullis, from 
Salt Creek, was on hand to see that Milford had a fair show. 
At this moment a state's warrant was served on Mr. Imlay 
on some hatched up charge. (We have nearly wrecked our 
brain trying to remember what that charge was but to no 
avail.) This warrant was issued by an old farmer Justice of 
the Peace, living near Milford, by the name of Harrington, 
that knew about ds much about law as a pig knows about a 
latin grammar. The Commissioners' meeting came to an end 
in the midst of great excitement. Sheriff Wallingford was 
on hand and arrested the Commissioner and when the curtain 
again rises it is at the country office of his honor. Squire 
Harrington. The only legal counsel Mr. Imlay had on that 
occasion was this unsophisticated, backwoods Author, but 
that made no difference for if Rufus Choate or Dan Webster 
had been there it would have been just the same. Mr Har- 
rington was a fast friend of Milford. Mr. Imlay was bound 
over to court, but some how the court to try his case never 
convened. It is rather a sad commentary on the courts in 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 133 

all this region round about that they were so biased in this 
embrolio that the Seward party stood no earthly show with 
a court in the southern part of the county, and j ast the same 
on the other hand. The Milford party, in rough language of 
another, "might as well be in H — without claws," as to fall 
into the hands of a court in the northern half of the county. 
Human nature is pretty much the same the world over. 

Now it comes the Seward fellow's turn and articles of 
impeachment were filed against the Clerk for falsifying the 
record. Mr. Reed was arrested and brought to the north 
midst the chilling blasts of an arctic climate. At least a 
score of his friends came along to see him through. He, 
having the right to a jury, had some show although he was 
in the land of the enemy. Our little, old, log school house 
served as a court room. Just at dark, on a bitterly cold, 
winter night, the prisoner was brought in. A jury of very 
worthy intelligent men were chosen and sworn, but remember 
that they were not "Angels." Some were Sewardites and 
some were Milfordites. Well, while the wind whistled and 
the snow drifted that cold, stormy night, that interesting 
trial proceeded until the stars ceased to shine in in the morn- 
ing. Oh! what flights of oratory were heard by that excited 
audience, court and jury as it came in living streams from 
those young attorneys. It was a drawn battle; of course the 
jury disagreed as might be expected. 

Now the case was set for another hearing and the next 
time it was agreed to make the jury to consist of three men 
and the next trial was held at Camden, in their school house. 
This time the jury concluded to end the matter by giving a 
verdict of acquittal and here the first chapter, of the ridicu- 
lous proceedings, ends with a round cost bill of seventy-five 
dollars for the Seward fellows to pay for their fun they had, 
besides a large attorney fee. 

Milford held the County Seat now for a time, but found 
it rather an expensive Seat. In another chapter we will fol- 
low up this embrolio to the final conclusion. 



CHAPTER Vm. 



Desperate wintei — Snow bound — Starving stock — A trip to Milford — 
Homeward throiigh a blizzard — The floods of spring— Terrible straits 
of settlers — Nebraska admitted — Brighter days — Blue valley ex- 
amined — Nebraska City's mistake— Grood markets— Hauling stone — 
Lincoln people hungry — Seward surveyed — Beaty and Davis store — 
The cyclone — Tuttle's hotel— The saw mill — ^We celebrated— Parker 
defeated — County seat fight waxes warm — Seward out generaled- 
Hon. D. C. McKillip — Free hotels — Looking after new comers — 
Seward had seven hovises — No public roads — No bridges — The old 
well in the square — Settlements extended — First railroad bond pro- 
position—Episodes of the embroglio — Records 1 :»st — ^Cadman's court^ — 
The house was searched- -Court at Lincoln — Reed's arrest- Brown 
hid — Dan got mad. 



The winter of 1866 and 1867 was most memorable. Of 
all the hard winters we have experienced in forty-five years 
of residence in Nebraska, that was by far the most severe. 
It began to snow on the first day of December, and from that 
time to the first of April it was a succession of storm after 
storm, and many of them were regular bhzzards of the most 
ferocious character. It was a providential circumstance 
that settlements had not yet penetrated the great prairies, 
but were confined to the valleys along the streams where the 
timber was plentiful. 

The snow became very deep and was drifted into such 
huge drifts that communication was entirely cut off between 
distant settlements. Long before spring the meager stock 
of grain had become exhausted and the supply of hay was 
limited. This resulted in great loss of stock. Many cattle 
actually starved. 

To demonstrate more fully the severity of the weather, 
we must relate our personal experience. There was a little 
ravine between our house and a grove where there was a 
quantity of dry wood which we were anxious to secure. The 
ravine was drifted full and we shoveled a road through that 
drift many times with the hope that we might crossjit with 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 135 

the team, but before we could ^-et home, yoke the oxen and 
return, our road would become impassable, and for three 
months we could not get a team across that ravine. We 
were completely shut in from the outside world. The game 
nearly all perished. What horses there were in the country 
were walking skeletons. On March 15, neighbor Ellis and 
the writer concluded to make a tremendous effort to get some 
bread stuff. That morning was fairly pleasant. Ellis 
hitched up the horses, and what horses! They were just 
a lot of bones with old dry hides stretched over them. We 
had a pretty good home-made sled armed with some empty 
sacks, and a couple of shovels we struck down the river just 
at daylight, and reached the Rogers settlement in time to 
share their dinner. We bought all the corn he would sell us, 
two bushels each, and made our way on to Milford by the 
time darkness came on. Uncle Billy Reed lived in the mill. 
He made us welcome although we were from the land of the 
enemy. He ground our grist during the evening while we 
talked over matters. It had begun to thaw on the fifteenth, 
and the roads began to be slushy, but on the morning of the 
sixteenth it began to snow and turned cold. We took an 
early start for home, but were compelled to halt at Uncle 
Sammy Brown's to thaw out. There we met two of Rev. 
Clark's daughters who had somehow made their way from 
Nebraska City on their way home. They wanted passage 
homeward, and we took them in. The storm increased in 
fury. We reached the Clark home (where Schuyler Clark 
now lives) at 4:00 p. m., nearly frozen. After warming up 
we pushed on to Moffitt's cabin on the future town site. Mr. 
Moffitt invited us to remain for supper and while his good 
wife was preparing supper we were invited to go down into 
the timber and help him lift to their feet a lot of cows that 
were about ready to bid this vain world farewell. 

This pleasant task accomplished, and supper over, we 
set out on the home stretch. Our way lead across where 
Seward was not yet, and across the bottom toward home, 
through snow two feet deep through which the poor horses 
floundered at every step. This last three miles was among 
the most perilous trips of a life time. It seemed that in 
spite of every effort we would perish; but at 11.00 p, m., in 



136 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

a half frozen condition, we reached home with our two sacks 
of meal. 

The snow did not melt sufficient to begin to get into the 
river until April 6. Then it let go all holds at once, and 
such a river as we had.- No other high waters since that 
April have been seen in this valley. A good sized steam- 
boat could have run with safety anywhere on the low bottom 
land. Where our cereal mills now stand the water was at 
least ten feet deep. The water backed up to Richard 
Sampson's door yard, and within a few rods of E. L. Ellis" 
residence. In places the little river was a mile wide. It 
drove many of the settlers out of their homes. In our set- 
tlement Rev. E. L. Clark's family and E. B. Shafer's were 
driven out of their homes at night. Old Mother Rogers had 
to be carried out from her home on her dying bed and taken 
to Milford where she died within a few days. 

It was one of the grandest sights of a life time to stand 
and watch the waters roll down the depressions from the 
highlands. Vast sheets of water, some of them from twenty 
to forty rods wide, were rolling down like little Niagaries, 
sometimes moving great snow drifts with an irresistible 
force. 

This vast bed of snow left the ground in excellent con- 
dition for crops. Grass sprang up under the warm April 
sun as if by magic. Wheat sown that spring brought an 
abundant harvest. The spring of 1867 brought in a host of 
settlers into all localities where settlements had been started. 

While the wild waters were holding high carnival, thsre 
was much suffering in the valley. Breadstuffs were com- 
pletely exhausted, and people had to resort to all sorts of 
schemes to exist until communication was restored. Some 
lived for days on boiled wheat, and some on hominy. Some 
lived largely on the fat of their ribs, and they were not very 
fat either. 

This summer Nebraska was admitted to the sisterhood 
of states and there was a general awakening as to its won- 
derful possibilities. ,As provided by act of congress, the 
first session of the new state legislature convened in Omaha 
in the early spring, and its most noteworthy act was the 
passage of the capital removal bill. The bill provided for a 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 137 

board of commissioners composed of state officers to select a 
point where a section of land would be donated somewhere 
withm the boundaries of Saunders, Butler, Lancaster or 
Seward counties. The commissioners, headed by Gov. Dav- 
id Butler, took a regular junketing tour, visited Ashland, 
various points in Butler county, then took a general survey 
of the valley from Ulysses to Camden. Our people tried 
hard to get the board to fairly consider section 16, the school 
section just north of the present city of Seward. They laud- 
ed our location to the skies, but they didn't give us a ghost 
of a show. They went to Milford and to Camden and had 
lots of good things to say for them also; then they went over 
to Yankee Hill, the home of the prime mover of capital re- 
moval bill, Hon. John Cadman. They talked very pretty to 
the Hon. John, but somehow the whole thing had been fixed 
by a "power behhid the throne" at Nebraska City. The 
business men had lent every energy in dealing what they 
thought to be a death blow to Omaha and had secured one 
point and now they proposed to have a say as to where the 
capital city should be built. They thought the salt interest 
would be an important factor and their intention and expec- 
tation was to build a city that would be tributary to Nebraska 
City and that the consequent development of the country 
would cause a tremendous boom at their city. They wanted 
the capital close enough so they could command all the bene 
fits of the location. Little did they dream that Lincoln 
would soon overshadow their city and destroy its opportunity 
to ever become a metropolitan city and not hurt Omaha in 
the least . Yet subsequent developments show that the move- 
ment did not injure Omaha, but etfectually shut the gate 
against the possibility of Nebraska City's growth. 

Had Lincoln been located in the Blue valley it would not 
only be more central in the state, but Nebraska City would 
to-day be a much more important city. 

But Lancaster got the capital and it remained for us to 
make the best of it. Immediately upon the location a great 
host of land seekers swarmed our prairies. Homesteads 
were taken by the thousands all over these counties near the 
new city. A new life had come to the country and every- 
thing was on the boom. Whatever a pioneer settler had to 



138 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

sell found a ready customer. At this time the reader must 
remember that there was not an iron rail in all south Nebras- 
ka. A city was looming- up on the wild prairie, where every 
pound of provisions, building material, etc., had to be freight- 
ed with teams. The stone for our first capitol was hauled 
by ox teams from Beatrice quarries. 

The first two years fuel was hauled from Seward county 
groves north of Germantown. Those fellows that laid the 
foundations at Lincoln had good appetites and seemed to 
have plenty of cash. They would just buy anything to eat, 
good, bad or indifferent and pay most any price. 

Wood was ten dollars per cord, butter fifty cents per 
pound, potatoes $1.00 per bushel, hay $10 to $15 per ton, 
fresh pork, dressed pigs 12^ cents per pound and everything 
in proportion. 

During the spring of 1868, Hon. Thomas Graham was 
employed by Lewis Mofiitt to survey the north half of the 
southwest quarter of Sec. 21, town 11, range 3 east, into a 
town site and fit it to the name adopted two years previous- 
ly (Seward) and in June of that summer the firm of Beaty 
and Davis opened a little store. Shortly after this W. H. 
Tuttle built the first section of the old commercial hotel that 
has recently been torn down and then Dr. Leland Walker 
met with a disaster with his frame house on the claim on Sec. 
11, town 11, range 3 east. 

A young cyclone had come his way and scattered his 
house all over the prairie. The doctor gathered up the frag- 
ments and built a residence where the opera now stands. 
Soon thereafter Wm. O. Pierce built a small frame dwelling 
and in these glad days Seward began to be a town. H. L. 
Boyes and son had just got a little saw-mill in operation just 
below town. 

Seward grew a little right along and by the Fourth we 
were anxious tc celebrate, and we did and an extended ac- 
count of our first celebration is given on another page. 

In the autumn of 18(38 H, W. Parker of Camden, a strong 
partisan of Seward, secured the nomination by the republican 
convention in this representative district for member of the 
Legislature. The district was composed of Saunders, But- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 139 

ler and Seward Counties and it was at the time strongly re- 
publican. 

Marcus Brush, a bright young lawyer of Ashland, was 
the Democratic nominate. The Seward people looked for- 
ward for relief at the hands of the coming legislature. Could 
Parker be elected it was almost certain that such legislation 
would be had that the county seat embroilio could be settled 
by a majority vote. The contest was spirited and bitter. 
The Milford people all agreed that Parker would be a dang- 
erous man and they would not dare to trust him a minute, 
and about the solid vote of that large locality was given to 
Brush, although four fifths of the voters were republicans. 
Other parts of the county divided on party lines. Parker 
was defeated and Brush, a rank democrat, represented a 
strongly republican district and in this Milford gained a 
strong point. 

Every effort to get Reed's canvassing board's decision 
overruled by the courts had proved unavailing, and now our 
hopes of relief from the Legislature had gone glimmering, we 
were in a rather sad dilemma. It was considered entirely un- 
safe to attempt the removal by a two-thirds vote. The sum- 
mer of 1868 was full of contention. Parker's term of office as 
commissioner expired and J. L. Bandy a strong Milford par- 
tisan was elected to take his place and now for a time. 

Milford had a majority of Commissioners, the County 
Clerk and held the county seat with a firm grip. In the 
mean time the county seat had attracted a young lawyer that 
gave their cause material help. Hon. Daniel C. McKillip 
located at Milford during the summer and was ready to take 
a hand in the contest. 

During this year Seward had been completely out-gen- 
eraled and was compelled to hold an empty sack. However 
Seward was growing and the north half of the county was 
settling up rapidly and as Seward was much nearer the cent- 
er of the county we were gaining steadily on our rival. 
Some how we had gained favor with the people of Lincoln 
the new capital city, and they lent us a helping hand in 
pointing out our locality to passing immigrants; yet at this 
time and up to the end of 1869, Milford had many advan- 
tages over Seward. It was the recognized county seat. It 



140. HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

was on the great overland trail where tens of thousands of 
immigrants were passing and giving trade to the business 
men and furnishing a ready home market for everything the 
farmer had. It had a grist mill in operation. It had such 
stalwart men as J. L. Davison, Wm. H. Reed, Henry Wor- 
tendyke and Dan McKillip to lead. These men were all 
"up to snuff," and they made it most interesting for us. 

In those good old days the country was full of hotels. 
Some were built of logs, some of sod, but they were all free 
and the "latch string" was always hanging out. Strangers 
were always given a hearty welcome. When a prairie 
schooner was sighted in the distance people would make 
haste to go out and meet it and extend a warm welcome. 
They were ready at all times to go and show vacant land and 
lend every encouragement and of course show all the su- 
perior features of their locality and when they had secured 
the settler to their neighborhood he was at once an enthu- 
siast for his town as against the other. The wonderful ad- 
vantages of each part of the county was shown to the world 
at large through the state papers and in Eastern papers. 
Every settler was a host in the struggle for supremacy. 

The lands of each locality were equally rich and fertile, 
equally beautiful and the farmer could make no mistake as 
to quality of land. Seward was growing and Milford was 
growing. When the snow began to fall and winter began in 
December, 1868, Seward had seven small buildings as follows: 
Beaty and Davis' Store, the little Tuttle house, Beaty's resi- 
dence where the Windsor now stands, W. R. Davis' residence, 
Dr. L. Walker's residence, Wm. O. Pierce's residence and 
Lewis Moffitt's log cabin. The old school house was not on 
die town site, neither was the dugout of the Boyes family. 
There was not a legal road leading into or out of the town. 
The side- walks were of prairie sod. There was just one 
low water bridge north of Milford and that was about eighty 
rods up the river from the old iron bridge west and north of 
the city at the Castle farm. 

The water supply of the town was from a well in the 
center of the public square, which was dug by E. L. Ellis 
and paid for by subscription. Farmers helped in this matter. 
Some paid their part by turning the windlass, hauling up the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 141 

dirt, some furnished lumber for curbing, etc. A windlass 
and the "old oaken bucket" served the people for a time but 
after a while there appeared in our community a "farmer 
that was not all a farmer." This enterprising citizen was 
A. L. Strang, who had bought Sec. 9,"G"Town, now known 
as the Jones farm, and he had put up an okl fashioned Hali- 
day windmill at his farm and although the lirst windmill to 
flap its broad wings in all this mighty west, it seemed to be 
right at home playing with our gentle breezes. 

Mr. Strang was a wide-a-wake business man and ready 
to grasp an opportunity. So he came down to the town with 
a proposition to place a windmill and tank at the public well. 
Mr. Strang headed the list of subscibers with a liberal sum 
and the "thing of beauty" was soon on it pegs and proved a 
joy to all thirsty people. This was the beginning of a great 
enterprise, for the fame of that mill spread far and wide and 
before many years had come and gone the name of A. L. 
Strang, General Agent, could be seen everywhere that civil- 
ization extended on our vast prairies and was numbered by 
the thousands. 

While the people in all parts of the county were busy 
breaking prairie, building sod houses and preparing homes, 
the county seat problem w^as not forgotten. The spring of 
1869 brought in a great host of settlers and every section of 
the county got a share. Quite a goodly number settled in 
the hill country to the eastward of both Seward and Milford. 
The northern tier of townships had become dotted over with 
new^ made farms. "M," "N" and "O" precincts got a fair 
share; "F" and "K" also had made a good beginning; "J" 
and "I" had gained many; "P" and "G" precinct had also 
forged to the front. The little village was steadily growing. 
Special features of the growth of the village will be noted in 
another chapter. On the 20th of September of this eventful 
year, 1869, the people of the county were called upon to vote 
on their first rail road proposition. 

This was a proposition of the Midland Railway company 
to build their road to the west bank of Blue river in Seward 
county provided the county would issue to them on the com- 
pletion of said road fifty thousand dollars in ten per cent 
twenty year bonds. The proposition was very indefinite 



142 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

and somehow it created neither enthusiasm or opposition. 
However it carried by a majority of fifty-two votes. The 
company failed to build the road as per agreement and our 
railroad matters rested quietly for a time. 

In the Legislature session in the winter of 1869, we, 
that is the Seward people, tried to get a bill of relief through 
granting the people the right to settle the county seat con- 
test by a majority vote, but our Milford friends had secured 
a fast friend in Representative Brush that they had assisted 
in his hour of need. He effectually blocked our little game. 
This only tended to inspire the Seward fellows to a more de- 
termined effort. There were many interesting episodes of 
the period. Somethings occurred that have never been re- 
corded and in undertaking to relate them from memory mis- 
takes are liable to occur. One very strange feature we have 
to contend with after a most diligent search in the county 
clerk's office, we fail to find the most interestmg book of com- 
missioners' records the county ever had, the record during W. 
H. Reed's tenure of office. That priceless treasure seems to 
be lost in the shuffle. We wonder if Mr. Reed took it with 
him across the dark river. There were numerous lawsuits 
that it would be most entertaining to the reader if the whole 
story could be told. One little story must be told even if we 
can't just tell what the bone of contention was at the time. 
Hon. John Cadman was Probate Judge of Lancaster 
County and that meant a great deal. It seemed to give him 
jui-isdiction over all these prairies. 

A complaint was made by some to the Milford friends 
against Commissioners Parker and Imlay for some high 
crime and misdemeanors. Major Philot and Hon. D. C. 
McKillip were attorneys for the prosecution. The complaint 
was lodged in Judge Cadman's court and warrants were is- 
sued for the arrest of defendents. Sheriffs never went alone 
in those days in that county seat matter no more than a sher- 
iff now days would attempt the arrest of a gang of train rob- 
ber without help. Mr. Sheriff took his posse and his brace 
of young attorneys, Geo. Merium and many other brave 
Milford boys. 

They went to Camden first on track of Parker. Parker 
had smelled a rat and was not at home that dark night. They 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 143 

rapped hard at the cabin door. They were informed that Mr. 
Parker was not there, but Major Philpot would not beheve 
that his bird had flown. So it was determined to search the 
house, and indiscreetly the major allowed his enthusiasm 
to get the better of him and he rushed wildly (as the story 
goes) into a bed-room where the hired girl (Mrs. Dan Harris) 
was sleeping or in bed at least, and savagely jerked the 
bed clothes off the bed. This was considered such an out" 
rage that if the Camden folks or the Seward folks had got 
hold of that sleek young lawyer before their blood had cooled, 
we would give but little for all that had remained of 
him. Parker had learned of what was going on and had 
made his way to Seward and put Imlay on his guard. It 
seems there was a case of some kind on the calender at 
Judge Maine's court away in the northeast corner of the 
county, and Parker and Imlay were interested in it and they 
w^ent over there. The sheriff and posse were hot on their 
trail. It is said a cowardly sneak in Seward given Parker 
and Imlay away. 

Judge Maine's court w^as in session when the mob rushed 
in upon them and captured their game, and started for 
Lincoln with them. At this juncture of the game, John D. 
Olney mounted a horse and came to the Seward settlement 
post haste. It had been a rainy day. It was now about dark 
when our boys rallied at Moffitt's cabin. 

The night was fearfully dark, but about a dozen of us 
resolved to go to the rescue even if we had to wade mud 
neck deep. The night was dark as Egypt. Some of us were 
on horseback, but a footman had to lead with a lantern. We 
went away around by the Oakgrove settlements and rallied 
them to our assistance. Just at the early dawn in a drizzling 
rain we reached Lincoln wet, weary and with blood in the 
eye. We were well along in the mad state when we started 
and the long weary tramp through rain and mud had put 
us in good lighting trim. We outnumbered the Milford 
crowd, and we had a better supply of war paint. We seemed 
to have the sympathy of the Lincoln folks, and we had 
our own way on the streets and our Milford friends raised 
no objections. Bye and bye Judge Cadman opened his 
court. Our folks employed Judge S. B. Pound, then just a 



144 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

youn^- man, to defend the prisoners. He seemed to get right 
down to business and made a most eloquent plea against 
Judge Gadman's jurisdiction, but Cad, as we called him, said 
no, I never let game go when I have hold of it. He held to 
his jurisdiction. He was willing to let Imlay go Scott free, 
but he held Parker to bail. 

Now the Seward boys take a hand in. Parker plainly 
refused to give bail, and we with one accord said, Parker they 
can't take you to jail, and they did not try. Judge Cadman 
and all the Milford folks wanted us to go home, but we wait- 
ed till fully ready. That case, whatever it was, died right 
there and was never heard of in the courts afterwards. 

Sometime later the commissioners had Mr. Reed over 
the coals and suspended him from office for some misconduct 
and appointed James A. Brown to fill the place. Mr. Reed 
refused to give up the books, whereupon a complaint was 
filed with Judge J. W. Shields. Judge Shields did not rec- 
ognize Milford as county seat, but held his court at Seward 
or at his home in the extreme northern part of the county 
just as pleased him best. This time he held his court at 
Moftitt's house on Seward town site. The sheriff and usual 
posse had gone to arrest Reed. Somehow the word got out 
that a counter warrant had been issued by some court for 
the arrest of Brown, the complaining witness. Mr. Brown 
got badly scared as the time for the sheriff's appearance with 
Reed seemed to be greatly prolonged. Night was coming 
on; Brown had secured this writer's help in the prosecu- 
tion. Brown, in fear of what might occur, proposed to 
hide in the tall grass over west of the square and await de- 
velopments. He almost overdid the thing. Just as it had 
got as dark as a stack of black cats, the sheriff and his 
crowd came with the prisoner accompanied by D. C McKillip 
and a large crowd of Reed's friends. Some think Dan's red 
head helped light the way to Seward. Dan was terribly 
red-headed that night. Well, said the august judge, the pris- 
oner is here, where is the complaining witness? 

I have him hid out in the prairie, said the attorney; will 
go and bring him in. Now it would make a dog laugh to 
have seen us, strolling over all the prairie yelling like a 
coyote and the more we yelled the closer the ground would 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 145 

Brown cling, scared within an inch of his life. We finally 
captured him and got liim into court, when the circus began 
in earnest. Friend McKillip and Uncle Billy Reed were on 
the one side; Jim Brown, myself and the court were on the 
other side, and it was a little like the later game of eight to 
seven. We had things about our own way. This was a Sew- 
ard court "you know." It has just come to mind that every 
one at the front in that exciting trial except the w^riter have 
gone to their long homes. Of all the number we alone are 
left to tell the tale, also nearly ail the spectators have passed 
away, yet looking back across the three and half decades 
it seems as but yesterday since that tempestuous night. Mr. 
Reed was bound over to court of course, but he never gave 
a bond and the matter just simply died, that's all. But Tames 
Brown lost a full year's growth by that scare. 



CH4lPTE:R IX. 



County seat question settled— Seward badlj' scared— Court house sold— 
Blue Valley Record— A thorn in Seward's side— State institutions— 
Seward's growth— Canvasses bond proposition, and hard fight— Vote 
by precincts— Long faces at Seward— A new proposition— Milford's 
mistake— Oak Groves cuts a figure -"F" and "G" precincts bled— 
"Stop the reapers"— Seward's triumph— 1873 prosperous— Grass- 
hoppers— Homesteads abandoned — Tell the whole truth— Sudden 
turn— Seward had been like a beehive— Like a pall of death— Lands 
abandoned— People of other states lend a helping hand— The 
vultures. 



In the session of the Legislature, held in the winter of 
1870 and 1871, an act was passed authorizing the County 
Commissioners in cases where the County Seat had not been 
located, to submit the question to the qualified voters at the 
next general election. The question was submitted at the 
October Election of 1871. 

Now another serious problem faced the people of Seward. 
The B. & M. K. R. had not yet been located westward from 
Lincoln but the Lincoln Land and Town Site Company had 
been organized with Mr. K. O. Philips at the head. They 
were busy locating cities on paper in those days. They 
looked over Seward County to see what could be done, and 
seeing that the people of Seward County were in the midst 
of a "kill kenny cat fight" over the County Seat, they con- 
cluded to help settle the matter. So they secured a title to 
a section of land at the exact center of the county, two and 
a half miles south, the same west of Seward, and began to 
hold out baits for popular favor with the promise that the 
rail road would be built in the near future to the new town. 
This new enemy seemed to have fearful p)roportions. It 
looked for a time that our goose was cooked to a finisli. Our 
old enemy was a wiley foe. They saw an opportunity to 
kill Seward as they thought and if they could they were 
ready to die happy themselves. She would throw all her 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 147 

force to the new town. The friends of Seward stood aghast 
at the audacity of the designs of the enemy but after a while 
the dark clouds rifted. The rail road folks concluded to 
build through Saline County and leave Seward County to settle 
their own affairs. 

The day of final battle came at last on the 10th day of 
October, 1§71. The contest was sharp and bitter. It was 
the most energetic contest in the history of the county. We 
believe every voter was at the polls, even if he had to come 
home from a distance of five hundred miles. Seward was 
triumphant at last, receiving twenty-two more than two-thirds 
of the votes cast. Milford had made a most strenuous fight 
and had left no stone unturned. They are fully entitled to 
much credit for they contested every inch of ground and died 
defending the last ditch as it were. Seward was now in the 
hey-day of its glory, however victory had not come to Sew- 
ard without sacrifice. The litigation had cost a mint of 
money and more, the town and its friends had to get down 
into their pockets deep, and provide twelve hundred dollars 
to build a court house and also furnish a block of lots on 
which to place it. That beautiful structure cost all told 
about $1400. Some of the citizens that contributed to that 
edifice had the pleasure of seeing it sold at auction some 
years ago for fifty dollars. It is now a blacksmith shop. 

There is an old saying (whether true or false) that "Ev- 
erything is fair in war." In this prolonged contest many 
people acted on that principle, and they were not confined 
to any one locality. Each and every fellow proposed to win 
and as the battle waxed warm, people were ready to over- 
come their scruples, but with all the strife and contention, 
with all the bitter feelings engendered, it is a pleasant mem- 
ory that no blood was shed and more, there was not even a 
fist fight in all the contest. We would meet in court and 
wrangle all day, but when meal time or bed time came, the 
enemy would be invited home and given the best the house 
afforded. This was almost universally the case at both ends 
of the string. All the better class of people were too noble 
in their make-up to do otherwise than treat every citizen, 
whether friend or foe, cordially and extend to them every 
courtesy. We are heartily glad that we are permitted to 



148 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

make this record. We are also glad to know that the few of 
us that yet live, that fought each other with a desperation, 
are all now the warmest of friends. Comparitively few of the 
heroes in the strife are now among us. They have mostly 
gone to their long homes, a few yet remain. A new genera- 
tion is now here building upon the foundations laid in those 
troublous times. 

Among the honored names of those who held aloft the 
Milford banner we remember Judge J. L. Davison, Abram 
Cartwright, Judge Henry Wortendyke, Lee Smiley and Wm. 
his brother, Silas Atwood and Henry his brother, the invin- 
cible Wm. H. Reed, Father Hazlewood, L. D. Laune, Wm. 
J. Thompson, Hon. Thos. Healeys, Samuel Brown, Father 
S. G. Merrium and George his son, Hon. D. G. McKillip and 
Geo. B. France; then we must not forget the man at the 
head of the Blue Valley Record, Capt. J. H. Culver. 

The Record dealt many heavy blows and recieved many 
in return, but the Record never forgot to hold up before the 
world this county as the best place in all creation for the 
poor man to get a home, and right here we may as well say, 
the Record came to life December 29th, 1870, and while it 
lasted it made a first class record and the Editor tells us that 
financially it was a grand success as it started on a paid up 
cash capital of twenty-five cents and when it closed its use- 
ful career some years later the cash balance was thirty-three 
cents and lots of experience. With a familiarity with all the 
many iDublications of Seward County for thirty-four years 
we unhesitatingly say that the Record was never yet sur- 
passed in ability. The Editor was always ready to speak 
his sentiments on any subject. The Record steadfastly re- 
fused to pander to the liquor trade but was forever pouring 
hot shot into their camp. Some of the "Shogo" Island pic- 
nicers thought it cranky. It goes without saying that the 
Record was a thorn in Seward's side during the controversy 
from the day of its birth until the curtain fell in October, 1871. 

These men and many more worked faithfully and un- 
ceasingly to make Milford the city of this grand valley and 
if they did not fully succeed in their undertakings they acted 
well their part and are entitled to much credit although stern 
fate was against them. The County Seat was taken from 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 149 

them and Milford could not accomplish what her founders 
desh'ed her to be, the principal city. She has accomplished 
much in the race. She has secured other prizes and rich 
ones too; she has one of the most extensive mills in the 
state. She has the two prom'inent state institutions, the 
Soldiers and Sailors' home and the Industrial home. The 
village is widely known as a pleasant resort, where mineral 
springs abound and where beautiful natural groves of timber 
add a cheerfulness that makes the tourist feel that he i-s 
right at home. Milford is located upon a commanding pla- 
teau on the west bank of the river overlooking a vast sketch 
of the valley, with a meandering stream fringed with timber, 
with blocks of magnificent farms in every direction with- 
in only a few minutes ride of the county seat and a half hour 
of the capital, with a good location for local trade and with 
a good supply of excellent business houses enjoying a good 
trade. She has much to rejoice over. Milford has a host 
of good wide-awake citizens and we trust that a bright 
future awaits her. For further particulars see the history 
of the village of Milford on another page. 

After the county seat matter was settled Seward began 
quite a rapid growth and began in the spring of 1872 to pre- 
sent quite the appearance of a village. Many new" buildings 
were erected and numerous merchantile houses were opened 
and the little city in embryo began to reach after other 
laurels. About January 1, 1872, Dr. J. W. Converse, super- 
intendent of the old Midland Pacific Rail Road, sent for some 
of the business men of Seward and vicinity to meet him at 
Lincoln to talk over rail road matters. This company had 
just recently completed their track from Nebraska City to 
Lincoln. One very stormy day a sled load of citizens had a 
sleighride down the great ridge to Lincoln where they were 
met by the learned Doctor of Rail Roads. The Doctor made 
known his plans to build his road to and through our county 
provided we were ready to do his bidding. It was the rule 
to suck all the blood there w^as in every instance. The 
Doctor had posted himself in regard to our assessment roll 
and found that under the law one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars of bonds could be voted and of course it w^ould re- 
quire just that much to induce the company to build and 



150 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

equip a road through the county. He made known to these 
people that he would make to the county commissioners a 
proposition as follows; that for one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollar, ten per cent, twenty year bonds to be delivered 
upon the completion of the road through the county via Seward 
or within one half mile of the public square in Seward, the 
road to be completed within a certain stipulated time. In 
due time the proposition was submitted and the fun com- 
menced; wonderful excitement prevailed. The old sectional 
strife was awakened anew. The people of Seward of course 
were almost universally in favor of the proposition and so 
also were most of the people of the north half of the county 
but in the southern half of the cownty the sentiment was de- 
cidedly against the proposition. There was a most thorough 
canvass and much bitter feeling w^as manifest. The Blue 
Valley Record used all its ability to down the proposition. 
Bond meetings were held in every part of the county and 
anti-bond meetings were addressed by fiery speakers and 
the rail roads were held up before the people as unprincipled 
monopolies. Speakers from other counties were imported 
to help our people settle the matter. Thoroughly organized 
committees were appointed to help defeat the bonds. On 
the 22nd of February the election was held and resulted as 
follows. The vote by precincts will show how sectional the 
strife was. There were at the time eight voting precincts 
and the total vote cast was eleven hundred and sixty-two by 
precincts as follows: 
Seward precinct — For bonds 
North Blue 

Lincoln Creek " " 

Oak Grove " " 

Milford 

Camden " " 

Walnut Creek " 
Beaver Creek " 

Total For 540 Total Against 622 
According to these returns it is very plain that the prop- 
osition .was defeated by a large majority. Seward was 
greatly discomfitted, in fact the people in the town, and in the 



282 


Against 


bonds 5 


136 







109 




9 


47 




60 


5 




147 


6 




138 


10 




130 


2 




135 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 151 

country round about were clothed in sack cloth and ready to 
roll in ashes or* "any old place" while Milford rejoiced. It 
would be most amusing could the long faces of our promi- 
nent citizens be reproduced. A photo of W. H. Tuttle, J. 
N. Beaty, W. R. Davis, Dr. L. Walker, Jim Harris and 
others, perhaps it might include this writer if they had been 
taken that morning, would show fairly well how woe-begone 
our people felt. But "behind all these dark clouds were all 
the stars'" and the day of deliverance was near. 

There was a peculiar turn in affairs when the commis- 
sioners began to canvass the vote. The rafcarns from Cam- 
den precinct were not to be found. It had the appearance 
of some rascality. A young Seward lawyer, by the name of 
F. M. Elsworth, had slipped the returns from Camden from 
the Clerk's office. This placed the commissioners in a pecu- 
liar position. Of course the commission'^rs could not count 
the Camden vote when it was not before them. Indignation 
meetings were held in various parts oE the county. Blood 
was hot. Even in Seward a large citizens' meeting was held 
and strong resolutions, condemning the attempt to steal an 
election, were passed. An injunction suit was brought re- 
straining the commissioners from issuing the bonds, which 
was made perpetual by Judge Lake on the IBth of May and 
everybody was pleased. We understand it was what we 
might call a friendly suit to settle the matter. 

Early in June a new and more liberal proposition was 
submitted by the Company. There was a strong effort made 
to conciliate the people of Milford. Dr. Converse proposed 
to build his road up the Middle Creek on about the route now 
occupied by the A. & N. road and bring it via of Milford but 
our Milford friends had got so thoroughly impressed with 
the idea that it was wrong to vote bonds that they rejected 
the offer. The Doclor was not to be out done; he was de- 
termined to find voters. So he made overtures to the peo- 
ple in the Oak Grove settlement to come bv a northern route 
and make a station that would help them materially. The 
new proposition was more liberal with the county but was 
rather tough on two townships which now comprise G," 
"F" and Seward city precincts. It was as follows: One hun- 
dred thousand dollars, ten per cent, ten year county bonds 



152 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

to be delivered as follows; seventy-five thousand dollars of 
said bonds to be delivered to the company when said road 
was completed to within one-half mile of the public square 
in the city of Seward, provided said road was completed on or 
before March 1, 1873, to said point; twenty- five thousand dol- 
lars ten per cent, ten year "P" and "G" precinct bonds, to be 
delivered at same date of county bonds upon completion of the 
road to Seward on or before March 1,1873, and twenty-five 
thousand dollars of county bonds to be delivered on completion 
of road to west line of county at anytime. July 4, 1872, the 
Record used flaming headlines as follows: ''Stop the Reaper 
and Protect Yourselves," or in other words go and vote down 
the hateful bonds. However the bonds were voted this time 
by a decisive majority of one hundred and twenty-three. In 
the interim Seward had grown and cast eighty -one more 
votes than at the former election. 

In looking backward we may see things that could not 
be so easily seen when looking ahead. It now looks as if 
the good people of Milford made a great mistake and by 
clinging so tenaciously to principle they lost a great oppor- 
tunity, for if she had accepted the olive branch when it was 
offered and helped secure a railroad, she would from that 
glad day have been on an even footing with Seward, and 
would have from that day taken a forward bound and re- 
mained a close rival. They had learned of their fatal mis- 
take by the time the A. & N. people made a proposition to 
the county. Seward was full of joy now and from this time 
forward for years her streets were full of people. New 
buildings by the score sprang up, and the little town began 
to put on metropolitan airs. Lots that would hardly have 
brought six bits per dozen the morning after the first bond 
election, now came into great value. It is safe to say that 
the value added to the town lots within the period of build- 
ing the road would exceed the value of all the bonds voted. 

Lands also advanced rapidly in value. New people 
came by the hundreds. Everything was on the boom. On 
the first day of March, 1873, as per contract the cars rolled 
into Seward and it was a glad gala day. 

The summer of 1873 was a very prosperous one with the 
farmers. Spring wheat was the principal crop on the new 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 153 

land and it yielded abundantly and the grain was of the best 
quality. Much of it graded No. 1 in Chicago and scarcely 
none fell below No. 2. It brought high prices, ranging at 
about seventy cents just after the great panic in September, 
and gradually rose until it reached a dollar in January 1874. 
Money was plenty and business men reaped a rich harvest. 
This being the end of the railroad, farmers hauled their 
grain from Butler, York, Polk and Hamilton counties and 
from all parts of Seward county. The town was alive with 
grain dealers. There were yet no elevators. Shovel houses 
were all the go. 

Seward county took an advanced step that eventful year. 
Hundreds of sod houses were replaced with comfortable 
frame dwellings; the building of county bridges began in 
earnest. New roads were located on nearly all section lines. 
Scores of neat schoolhouses sprang up in all parts of the 
county. Every man, woman, and child was on the jump try- 
ing to accomplish something. Every train brought in new 
people. New brick structures began to rise in the young- 
city. We went into winter quarters Jan. 1, 1874, a prosper- 
ous, progressive and happy people. 



ALL ROADS HAVE A TURN 



The remarkable prosperity that blessed the people of 
our county and state during 1873 met with a very sudden 
change in the summer of 1874. 

Great energy was displayed that spring in putting in a 
larger acreage of crops, and as such wonderful success had 
crowned their efforts the previous year they were not afraid 
to run in debt. Business men and farmers all alike were 
ready to branch out. Very large stocks of goods were 
bought on time and sold on time, and scattered over the 
prairies promiscuously, reaching to the banks of the Platte 
river north and west. Seward was like a bee hive during 
the spring and early summer. July was dry and exceeding- 
ly hot after a wet June. This injured the wheat materially. 
This was serious, really a calamity, and as calamities usually 



154 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

do not come singly, this was no exception. "For in the 
hour when we thought not, a new scourge fell upon us. " 

Lo, the heavens were darkened by a cloud of grasshop- 
pers that fell upon us. They came from the northwest like 
a vast tidal wave. As far as the eye could penetrate the 
sky it was a living sea of insects. It is safe to say that 
millions of tons of them lighted on the fields of Seward 
county alone, and it was the same over the whole trans- 
Missouri country where there were settlements. It was like 
a pall of death to all our interests. They had come a very 
long disiance and were exceedingly hungry, and like all 
hungry tramps, they preferred to dine with us. Of coui'se 
they were unwelcome guests, but little did they care. They 
came for our corn and vegetables and they were not long in 
cleaning the platter. They ate the corn and made desert of 
our garden truck. Onions were a great favorite; first they 
ate the tops, and then weni right into the ground and left 
nothing but the dry onion skin and tibrous roots. Cabbage 
and tui'ni])s were also great favorites Then they went for 
the green tobacco. Oh! what inveterate tobacco chewers! 
Each took a good big chew% provided the tobacco patches 
furnished so much. It was quite noticeable that they all 
spit tobacco juice, or something very like it. Of this we are 
sure they were the most inveterate chewers of the weed that 
we have ever met. 

Those who have never seen a swarm of these pests can 
form no proper idea of the immensity of their numbers. When 
they w^ould settle down for the night, trees of pretty fair size 
would lap over to the ground under the weight. It has been 
said that trains on the U. P. road were frequently stalled by 
their massing on the tracks. It was thought by some that 
all the cattle we can produce in fifty years would not equal 
in weight the hoppers that foraged on our fields in that 
memorable August of 1H74. 

Most of the people were very poor; losing their crop was 
virtually losing their all. A very large proportion were 
homesteaders who came to the country with scanty means. 
Others came with just a little money, bought railroad land, 
and paid just a littls payment. They had begun improve 
ments and had used up their last dollar, had run in debt for 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 155 

supplies, perhaps lumber and much machinery, and when 
they were brought face to face with utter destitution, 
there seemed nothing else to do but "get up and 
get" back to their wife's relation. Hundreds of people just 
loaded up the wife and children and what little they could 
carry and took their departure. Some just abandoned their 
lands and said goodbye to Nebraska. Some few managed 
to get a trifle ftDr their places; some sold farms for three to 
four hundred dollars that would now readily bring ten 
thousand dollars. 

If these, people happened to owe for a plow, harvester 
or any other farm implement, they just went off and left it. 
Implement men and attorneys were busy people then, ran- 
sacking the prairies and looking up abandoned machinery. 
Oh, I don't want to tell half our experience in that field of 
enterprise. 

All classes of personal property became a drug on the 
market. The best of pigs would hardly sell at $1.50 per 
hundred pounds. The people who had the nerve to remain, 
or who were forced to stay faced destitution. Want and 
hunger stared the people in the face like a horrid specter. 
Had it not been for thousands of noble men and women in 
the old states who came to the rescue, the suffering would 
have been too fearful to contemplate. Vast amounts of food, 
clothing, and fuel were sent from Iowa, Illinois, and other 
states. Right here it is proper to acknowledge the honor- 
able part the railroad companies had in the relief work. 
They hauled thousands of tons of freight free of charge to 
the very doors of these people. In this they earned the 
lasting gratitude of all concerned, as they labored unceasing- 
ly without money and without price to relieve want and 
suffering. 

Is it not right to tell the whole truth in historyV Then 
we must say that among the well-to-do people of our county 
we found in those dark days two distinct classes of people. 
One class, and the larger class, were untiring in their efforts 
to assist their less favored neighbors in every way possible 
to bridge over this disaster, and in thousands of instances 
they denied themselves of ease and luxury that they might 
divide with the needy. They organized relief societies and 



156 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

hunted up the destitute, o^athered up means and diil all in 
their power, in every way using their own money, clothing- 
and food, and more, they used their influence with their 
eastern friends and secured vast stores of goods. We are 
glad there are so many whole souled people. 

But there was another class that shall not escape our 
notice. They are fully entitled to remembrance, and they 
shall have it. They were the vultures, the cormorants that 
w^ere not only blessed with plenty and should have gladly 
given of their bountiful store; but instead of that they were 
on the alert to steal from hungry children and helpless wid- 
ows what better people were sending them. We write what 
we know to be true . It was our fortune, or misfortune, to 
be brought into close contact with the people in those trying 
times in distributing relief to thousands of them. We well 
remember what a struggle we had to keep these vultures at 
bay. There were scores of them who richly deserve to have 
their names published that they might enjoy the just execra- 
tion of mankind. Their names should be covered with ever- 
lasting shame. 



CHAPTER X 



At a standstill— "In a quandary "—Homes abandoned— A critical period 
—Brighter days— Railroad extended to York— New recruits— Im- 
provements in 1876— Planting fruit trees—Great celebration— First 
murder— Trial an exciting one— Clough convicted— Sentence of 
- death commuted— Changes in 1877— Utica founded— First settlers of 
"E"precinct — Went to market with eggs— Hawk pie — Improvements 
— First birth in the new town— Cattle stampede— Close call for the 
author 



In 1875 things in country and city were at a stand still. 
Business men and farmers were in what the Irishman calls 
a "quandary," things looked blue. The railroad lands were 
mostly abandoned, and hundreds of homesteads had been 
shifted off at "any old price." Hundreds ot fields bore an ex- 
cellent crop of weeds, and a general feeling of despondency 
was brooding over our fair land. A mortal dread of the re- 
turn of our implacable enemies was thoroughly imbedded in 
the minds of the people. Many of them were cogitating in 
their minds as to whether they had not made a fatal mistake 
in coming to Nebraska. Some brave souls were able to look 
through and beyond the gloom to brighter days when Ne- 
braska should be redeemed. Such did all they could to en- 
courage people to hold their lands. During this critical 
period, fair crops blessed the efforts of the faithful husband- 
man and hope revived and in the blessed spring of 1876 
things began to move again as in other years. New people 
began to come forward and occupy the vacant places. 

Much valuable improvement was added to county and 
city during the summer and fall. Walker's opera house with 
a few other substantial business structures were built, which 
gave evidence of new life to the city. The Midland Pacific 
extended their grade to York during the summer- of 1875, 
but it was only used as a wagon road for two years. During 
the fall of 1876 the grasshoppers put in their appearance 
again in great numbers and did much damage, but fortu- 



158 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

nately they were late in their arrival and were not able to 
devastate the county, as they did in 1h74. They left us a 
sufficient amount of corn to tide us over. The small grain 
was fairly good that year and it was secured. Vegetables 
were good and about all out of reach of the hungry tramps. 
So the people had enough to get through the winter without 
suffering or assistance. 

The centiennial year brought great numbers of people 
from other states that were attracted by our cheap lands and 
as a rule those immigrants were men of more means than 
those of former years, and this told favorably on the class of 
improvements. They built better houses; begun to erect 
barns. They began to fence pastures and many began ex- 
perimenting with tame grasses. They brought in many herds 
of improved cattle and great numbers of a better grade of 
horses. This improvement extended to hogs, poultry, etc. 

Great efforts were put forth in planting fruit and forest 
trees and the county began to look more like a home. The 
soddies wei-e rapidly disappearing. Bridge building began 
again in earnest and the roads were much improved. This 
glad centennial year the people of the county held at Sew- 
ard the most notable gathering in the history of the county 
up to that date on the fourth of July, when more than five 
thousand people assembled to do honor to the occasion. The 
reader is referred to another page for a general description of 
til at celebration. 

Now it becomes a painful duty to record the most sor- 
rowful and tragic event in all our forty years history. Up 
to this time, May 1874, no murder had been committed, so far 
as was positively known and no serious event had occurred 
to mar our p^ace. Our people had thus far been noted for 
sobriety, industry and general good behavior although we 
had been drawn together from so many localities in our 
ov.il country and from foreign lands. With all our diversified 
peculiarities and antagonistic interests, no human blood 
had been shed in all our borders until the sad event of 
which we now write. 

One beautiful morning in the month of May when all 
nature was smiling with gladness and our little city was 
basking in the lovely sunshine, enjoying the fragrance of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 159 

the opening buds of spring, there breaks upon the ears of 
our good people the astounding news that a man (a neighbor) 
had been murdered. A chill of horror seized upon the peo- 
ple as the news rapidly spread that Nathan Clough was the 
victim and that he was found lying in the hay loft of the Blue 
valley house barn wrapped in the bloody mantle of death. 
Excitement ran high, a coroner's jury was hurried impaneled. 
Suspicion rested on several characters that harbored around 
the hotel and a close surveillance was kept and no one was 
permitted to leave the town while the jury was trying to 
solve the mystery. The air was filled with all sorts of wild 
I'umors. The excitement spread as days rolled on while the 
jury was in session. It reached from city to country and to 
every part of the state and even into other states. It was 
the absorbing theme of conversation and discussion every- 
where. The newspapers were full of it. The pleasant sun- 
shine of that spring time was turned into a dark cloud that 
hung like a pall over the city. 

There was apparently a suspicion among the people near 
and far that Warren Clough, brother of the murdered man 
was guilty of the deed. It seemed to float in the air without 
the use of a telephone. The business men of the city 
were wisely cautious of their words, but the women and 
children would indiscreetly say on the spur of the moment 
"its nobody, but Warren Clough that did it." Farmers coming 
into town would whisper their to friends, "I believe Warren 
did it. " Traveling men on the trains would give vent to their 
opinion that he. was the guilty wretch. Even a correspond- 
ent of the Omaha Bee confidingly told his readers that Clough 
was most likely killed by his brother Warren. Thus suspic- 
ion grew till it became imbedded in the minds and hearts of 
the people everywhere without evidence or in advance of 
evidence that Warren had killed his brother. We are free 
to confess that this impression darted through our mind the 
moment our eyes caught sight of Warren, unbidden arnd en- 
tirely without evidence and fastened itself so firmly upon 
us that we have never been able to shake it off to this day. 
Why it was so is impossible to explain only in this unsatis- 
factory way that Warren Clough was a rough character. The 
jury was in session nine days and finally placed the crime 



160 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

where the people had placed it without evidence after trail- 
ing every shadow to its substance or till it had become lost 
m the mist. Jusl what evidence came before that jury of 
intelligent and honorable men the world can never know, but 
this much leaked out that Warren was his own worst witness 
by his own contradictions and evasions and guilty actions. 
In the preliminary hearing at Seward enough evidence 
or ]jublic impressions were adduced to hold him to the dis- 
trict court, and after a long and tedious trial with Hon. Geo. 
W. Lowley as chief prosecutor and Norval Bros., ably as- 
sisted by Hon. O. P. Masan, a former chief justice of su- 
preme court of Nebraska, the jury returned a verdict of 
guilty of murder in the first degree, and and the death sen- 
tence was pronounced upon him at York, Nebraska, where 
the trial was held on account of the prejudice of the people 
of Seward County. 

In due time all preparation was made for the execution, 
all motions for a new trial being overruled, but on the even- 
ing before the execution was to take place, Governor Garber 
commuted the sentence and Clough was given a life sentence 
in the penitentiary at hard labor. Clough served fourteen 
years of his sentence and had behaved himself well. Many 
efforts had been made through the years to secure his pardon, 
but to no avail. Public opinion was too strong against him, 
but finally a last effort in the early winter of 1892 was suc- 
cessfully made and good old Governor J. M. Thayer made 
him a New Year's present of his freedom. Many people 
found fault with the govennor, but considering the fact that 
the prisoner had been convicted on purely circumstantial 
evidence with unbounded prejudice aiding the prosecution, 
and it being hard to tell just what weighed most with the 
jury the evidence or general prejudice, we deem the pardon 
highly proper in as much as the defendant had sufl'erd four- 
teen years of prison life, it seemed to be the proper thing to 
do, to give the old man his freedom for the few remaining 
days or years of his life. Any one objecting to this pardon is 
kindly referred to that grand sentiment so beautiful expressed 
in "Pope's Universal Prayer:" "That mercy I to others 
show that mercy show to me." 

The year 1877 brought many important changes and 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 161 

marked a new era in the development of the county. This 
year the Midland Pacific railroad company passed into the 
hands of the B. & M. company and the rails were laid to 
York, and the town of Utica was founded. 

Among the very earliest settlers on that great prairie 
was the Hon. Geo. A. Derby who homesteaded land to the 
north and west of where Utica now stands, in 1872. Mr. 
Derby made some very creditable improvements for that 
early day, and his house was the genial home of many a 
weary traveler, as it was the only stopping place between 
Seward and the new town of York. He was a wide-awake 
man, and as soon as the building of the projected railroad 
was assured, he made haste to lay out the town of Utica. 
He saw at a glance that the broad acres of rich farming land 
surrounding the place must of necessity have a trading 
place, and he went to work w^th that energy and determi- 
nation wdiich usually bring success, and the present flourish- 
ing, bustling, business tow^i of Utica is the result. Mr. 
Derby was a most useful citizen in his day. We always 
found him at the front in every enterprise that would tend 
to advance the interests of that part of the county. He 
spent the best energies of his life for the development and 
advancement of his locality. 

Utica has grown and prospered with the years. What 
was then an uncultivated expanse of wild prairie is now a 
perfect checkerboard of beautiful farms with residences that 
will compare favorably with any of the older portions of the 
state; and when w^e say that, it means any part of the farm- 
ing country of the great Republic. 

Utica is at this writing the third town in the county in 
point of business and population. Of its business interests 
we will speak fully in another chapter. 

Howard M. Coleman was one of the first homesteaders 
who broke sod on that wild prairie. The date of his settle- 
ment was May, 1871. Mr. Coleman had much to do with the 
imiDrovements and progress of Utica, We well remember 
when he had to haul wood from the Blue river to keep the 
family from freezing in the old pioneer days. But things 
changed and in his later years he did not have to haul wood 
fifteen miles. 



162 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Geo. Liggett, who took up a homestead on Lincoln creek 
in 1869, commenced the grain trade in the new town when 
the station was first established. Mr. Liggett only enjoyed 
the pleasures of a farmer's life one year, when he moved to 
Seward where he tried his hand at harness making for a 
time when he thought he saw glory or wealth in Antelope 
county and removed to that locality. He soon secured all 
the glory he needed and gave up the idea of wealth, and 
like a sensible man he returned to Seward and here he 
studied the art of buying grain. After graduating among 
the grain men of Seward, he went to Utica and there com- 
menced the practice of his profession with remarkable suc- 
cess as his ample possessions demonstrate. 

Oscar Ragan, one of the very first men to embark in 
business in the new town and has made quite a succes was a 
Lincoln creek pioneer who had quite a rough and tumble ex- 
perience in the early days. He homesteaded in 1867. He 
had a pretty hard time for a while to keep the wolves from 
his chicken coop as well as to keep them from the door. It 
was no uncommon thing for the settlers to become desperate- 
ly hard up, but Oscar had experiences that take the rag off 
the bush. He had one faithful old hen and for a time she 
was the main dependence of the family. Oscar lived only 
sixteen miles from Seward, and one day he concluded to go 
to town for some groceries. Of course like all thrifty farm- 
ers he gathered up the produce to take along to pay the 
bills. By using a little extra exertion in chasing the old 
hen she was induced to lay that morning before Oscar start- 
ed. So when an invoice of stock was taken it was found that 
there were five eggs all fresh and in the best condition for 
the market. Oscar did not have a spring carriage to carry 
his eggs to market. When he got to Seward he walked into 
Beatty & Davis' store proud of his hoard of fresh eggs think- 
ing of the good things he would buy. He handed his bucket 
of eggs to Pap Davis to count; but when the bucket was 
opened, behold the consternation! Three of the eggs had 
broken, and so was Oscar's heart. Just imagine how Oscar 
and Pap Davis looked just then. Well, Oscar's trip was not 
entirely lost, as he got one cent's worth of salt and one cent's 
worth of matches. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 163 

Oscar had a bit of experience one time in Seward trying 
to borrow some money. He approached a money man and 
asked to borrow a hundred dollars. "Oh, yes! all right, 
Mr. Ragan, you can have it. Please how long do you want 
it, one or three years?" remarked the cash man. "Oh, I 
guess I might just as well take it for three years," says Os- 
car, thinking he had "struck it rich." "Well," says the 
gentleman, "it is our rule to collect the interest in advance." 
"All right," says Oscar, "how much will it be?" "Interest 
is three per cent, per month and three times thirty-six is 
$108. Please sign this note of $100 and give me $8 and we 
are even and no harm done." 

Oscar has a little more experience that is worth telling. 
Meat was a scarce article among the pioneer settlers, and 
frequently they went hunting to get some game to help out, 
and Oscar concluded to try his hand. So he took the old 
rifle down and cleaned it up and went in pursuit of game. 
The buffalo and elk had all disappeared. The antelope were 
shy. Oscar tramped all day long and the only living thing 
he saw to shoot was a chicken-hawk. He downed it. He 
looked at it, turned it over and said to himself, "Wonder if 
it's good to eat?" He had oft times heard of politicians eat- 
ing crow and had heard no complaint. "Guess it will do." 
So he takes it home and tells the good wife that on the mor- 
row they will have a feast. The wife made all things ready 
and a nice hawk pie was prepared. Oscar being a generous 
soul invited some of his neighbors to help enjoy the feast. 
The guests were all seated with Oscar in his proper place at 
the head of the table; all being served with a portion of the 
dainty dish they all commenced eating at the proper mo- 
ment. One mouthful was partly swallowed when Oscar 
with a heaving breast found it necessary to find his way to 
the door. The hawk showed signs of great discontent at 
going into Oscar's stomach. Oscar was quickly followed by 
his guests — but they did not go to see what was the matter 
with Oscar. They each had serious business of their own 
to look after. Since that eventful day and dinner experience 
he has wondered how it can be that politicians can eat crow 
without wincing as so many do. He certainly has never 
since had a hankering after hawk pie. 



164 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Thomas Standard and Joseph Jones have the honor of 
erecting the first building on the town site and opened the 
first stock of merchandise in the month of August, 1877. 
These enterprising gentlemen were homesteaders and settled 
on lands in close proximity in 1870. We remember Mr. 
Standard at an early date as a standard thresherman of the 
county. These wide-awake men did their full share in help- 
ing on improvements in the new town, and are certainly en- 
titled to kind remembrance by those who got credit at their 
store when hard pressed for something to eat. 

George Goodbrod erected a small hotel also in August, 
and the weary traveler could then find a place of rest. 

Fritz Beckard started a lumber yard the same month. In 
September Fred Goehner and Wilkins opened the second 
store, and C. C. Turner built a blacksmith shop and com- 
menced pounding iron. Wm. Alexander opened a grain 
house in the fall, and there were other improvements in- 
augurated which gave the village quite an appearance as a 
business center. From the start Utica enjoyed a large grain 
and stock trade, and what is rather peculiar, these dealers 
were in a marked degree successful. 

Rev. C. E Phinney was the first minsiter to invade this 
wilderness. He located on a homestead in 1874 and im- 
mediately set to work and organized a protestant Methodist 
church. However, a class of the M. E. church had been or- 
ganized at the Kinkaid schoolhouse as early as 1872. This 
was three miles east of the present town. It was organized 
by the Rev. A. J. Folden. This class was later re- organized 
by Rev. G. M. Couffer of Milford, and in 1878 it was perma- 
nently established at Utica. The little class grew and pros- 
pered and in 1881 they built a creditable frame church edifice. 
They had previously built a parsonage. 

A United Brethren church was organized at the Oliver 
schoolhouse, in 1873 by Rev. E. W. Johnson, a young minis- 
ter that came from Fulton county, Illinois, and found a home 
three miles west of Seward. Later he became an honored 
presiding elder of his chuich. 

In 1880 Rev. Father C. J. Quinn established a Catholic 
mission and later built a neat house of worship. 

So it will be seen that Utica was not neglected by those 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 165 

laboring in the Master's vineyard. The church and the 
schoolhouse, the two great civil izers of men, were built side 
by side in tliis new land. 

Miss Clara Derby taught the first school in that vicinity 
in the spring and summer of 1873. The schools of Utica 
have kept pace with the other interests, and they now have 
a fine building with a well equipped graded school. 

At the head of the great train of children born at Utica, 
Miss Clara Goodbrod came first to cheer the hearts of her 
parents. She was born Oct. 16, 1877. She is now the wife 
of a Seward county boy. Homer J. Stolz. 

For many years Utica commanded the trade of a large 
area of excellent territory, it being the most accessible 
railroad point for the north half of "M" precinct, all of "L" 
and "E," the northwest part of "N" and part of "K," and 
from the north it took in a part of "C" and about all of '"D" 
and also it took trade from the east row of townships of 
York county. The rich valley of Lincoln creek, settled by a 
thrifty class of Germans, poured their wealth into the little 
village lavishly. Business was brisk for the first ten years 
of its existence, or until the F. E. & M. V. road was built 
in 1887. 

The lands were soon all occupied in all the western por- 
tion of the county, the amount of grain and stock marketed 
was immense, and many of the dealers accumulated handsome 
fortunes in those palmy days. 

Will the reader kindly bear with the author while he 
tells of his first visit to this great prairie v ilderness when 
there was not a sign of human habitation between the Blue 
river and the Platte river north of the overland freight road 
running through the neighborhood of old Camden and west- 
ward through the southern portion of this and York counties 
and on to Fort Kearney. In the early part of the summer 
of 1864, while we were yet a resident of Lancaster county, 
although much interested in Seward county, a project was 
set on foot by Jacob Dawson of Lancaster (now Lincoln) to 
open a great freight road from the Missouri river through 
Lancaster and prospective Seward, and westward to a point 
on the old overland road somewhere west. 

Uncle Jake, a man of nerve and unbounded energy, went 



166 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

down to Wyoming, about six miles north of Nebrasli;a City, 
and held a conference with the Mormon leaders. That little 
place was the Mormon outfitting point for the great journey 
to Salt Lake. An agreement was made and Mr. Dawson 
was to lead a great freight train across the wilds to break a 
road. When the train reached the Salt Basin, Mr. Dawson 
secured our services as a guide through the wilderness. We 
followed up the great divide leading to the plain at the 
future Germantown, thence to Plum Creek and down the 
valley to its mouth. By the time the train had reached this 
point, all the neighborhood along this part of the Blue val- 
ley was aroused. There were only three families, viz: R. T. 
Gale, Grandfather Imlay, and William Imlay, also two young 
men, David P. and Joseph Imlay. Now an earnest search 
began to find an easy place to ford the river. None could be 
found. The next thing to do was to bridge the river. We 
gathered all the axes in the train and in the community and 
downed a hundred or more trees and snaked them together 
with the oxen, and before night we had a substantial bridge, 
the first ever buili. on the upper Blue. 

In this undertaking we had the help of sixteen young 
stalwart Mormons and with words of encouragement of 
Grandpa Imlay, a good job was done and the great train of 
merchandise with ninety-six great oxen landed, safely on the 
west bank of the river. Now all was wilderness before us. 
Our only guide were the surveyors' stakes. We mounted 
the highlands just south of where the Burlington track was 
laid in after years, and when night overtook us we were in 
"L" Precinct, town 10, range one east of the sixth P.M., just 
a little to the east and some miles south of the present Utica. 
There was a boundless field of splendid grass. The day had 
been excessively hot, and we welcomed the shades of even 
ing. 

A corral was form-^d by placing the wagons in a circle, 
and the cattle turned out to graze. Supper was prepared 
over the huge camp fire. While we were eating there were 
sure omens of a storm. Dark clouds were looming up in the 
northwest. Deep thunder tones were heard in the distance. 
Supper was eaten hurriedly that we might have all things 
in readiness for what might come. It fell to our lot to take 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 167 

a place as one of the outer pickets to guard the cattle; we 
went out to duty in our shirt sleeves. As dark came on a 
pace the heavens began to look frightful. There was peal 
on peal of dreadful thunder which came nearer and nearer 
every moment. The night was wild and drear on that lone- 
ly prairie. The darkness of Egypt was not a patchin to it. 
We were on our lonely beat perhaps from three to five hun- 
dred feet from the herd, when a terrific crash of thunder 
that was enough to scare a dead man, frightened the herd 
and every mother's son of them were scared at the same 
instant, and a stampede was on hand, and the ninety-six 
struck in a bee line for me. They came with all the force of 
a full grown cyclone. Few and short were the prayers we 
said and we thought not of writing these reminiscenses. We 
were ready to say goodbye to this old world. When fortun- 
ately for these reminiscenses a vivid flash of lightning came 
to our rescue, but oh! the ghastly sight of the demons com- 
ing with a thundering tread right upon us to trample us into 
the earth so that we would need no burial. We have always 
given credit to that flash of lightning and that w^hite shirt. 
Possibly I ought to credit the oxen for their kind considera- 
tion. The oxen divided just at the right time and the ranks 
left me was so narrow that they almost brushed my shirt 
sleeves on either side. Need we tell the reader that fright 
effectually stopped our growth and our diminutive stature 
may be attributed to that night's experience. 

It only took two days to get those cattle back to camp. 
The next morning the great level prairie was a sea of water. 
It was convincing proof that it did sometimes rain west of 
Salt creek. The cattle were found near the present city of 
Milford, evidently they did not go that far in search of water 
that night. When they were finally gotten together again we 
led the train to the ranch of John E. Fouse at the crossing of 
the Beaver at the old road and there we bade our Mormon 
friends adieu and turned our faces homeward. When Uncle 
Jake, Mr. Imlay and I got through with that Mormon train 
we were fully satisfied with our experience in leading trains 
through the wilderness and we tried it no more. 



CHAPTER XI 



Greneral advance in 1878 — Improvement in city and country — Contention 
between U. P. and A. & N. railroads — Great mass meeting held — 
Election followed by an injunction —Wild excitement — Crooked 
work — County seal spirited away — Bonds taken out of state — In- 
junction made perpetual — A. & N. road swallowed up by the B. & 
M. — 1879 a year of prosperity — Milford bounds to the front — Staple- 
hurst founded — Seward is greatly stimulated — Pleasant Dale founded 
— Uust storms of 1880 — Seward is sick — Bates murder — A tragedy- 
Murder at Grover^ — Smallpox or itch, which? — smallpox in "H" 
precinct — Patrick murder — Stormy winter — Snow blocade — Brighter 
skies in 1882 — Boom in 1884 — The western desert vanishes — Feeding 
stock- -New railroad project — Jonah can't swallow the whale^ — Three 
new towns founded — Beaver Crossing comes to life— Flowing wells 
— Great potato field — A rustling village. 



A. & N. RAIL ROAD 

Eighteen hundred and seventy-eight was a year of gen- 
eral advancement, in a quiet sort of a way, in both country 
and city. Many new farms were opened in all parts of the 
county and several new business blocks were added to the 
city. Norval block and also the Goehner block were 
erected. Crops were fairly good and people were generally 
prosperous. At this time the people began to feel the need 
of another rail road in the county. There were two pro- 
jects on foot and each seemed plausable to many people. 
One of these projects was to hold out the proper induce- 
ment to the Union Pacific company to build a branch from 
Brainard to the Republican Valley line, now occupied by 
the Northwestern, to Seward and the south or southwest. 
This problem was championed by Claudius Jones of Seward, 
and was urged with much energy, and it had much to recom- 
mend it as it would bring the great U. P. road in direct com- 
petition with the Burlington system. In Seward it had 
many friends but in the county it did not find much favor. 
Negotiations were opened with the managers of the At- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 169 

chison and Nebraska people, who proposed to build a line 
connecting with their road from Atchison, Kansas, to Lin- 
coln and Columbus, Nebraska, via. Middle Creek, Milford, 
Seward, Ulysses and David City to Columbus. The Milford 
people had been suddenly converted from their old notion 
of repudiating all bond propositions from "principle" and 
like most new converts they were most decidedly enthusias- 
tic. The adherents of each proposition in the city of Se- 
ward was most determined. It was a subject of warm discus- 
sion as to which proposition should be accepted. 

A great mass meeting was called in the si:)ring of 1H79 
to determine which of the two schemes the people would 
most heartily endorse. The public square of Seward was 
tilled with people. Hon. S. B. Galey, of Lincoln, assisted 
by Judge O. P. Mason, represented the A. & N. road, and 
Claudius Jones, of Seward, the U. P. Excitement ran high 
that day and there were some scenes enacted that were not 
very creditable to our people. 

Unfortunately the person representing the U. P. inter- 
ests did not enjoy the full confidence of the people, and they 
looked at the rail road through the man, and unwisely re- 
fused to listen to his proposition, but hooted him down and 
caricatured him most scandalously, even carrying the joke 
so far as to bring the matter up in the Fourth of July cele- 
bration and representing him in a hoodlum procession as a 
mammoth hog. 

The pressure was so very great that commissioners and 
all were swept along without let or hindrance, and the prop- 
osition in favor of the A. & N. Co. was submitted under 
the corporate name of Lincoln and Northwestern. The 
amount of bonds asked for was seventy-five thousand dollars 
in county and precinct bonds, divided up in a satisfactory 
manner between the county and C, G, J, O, P, and I pr<^- 
cincts. The propositions were carried in the county and all 
the six precincts by good majorities. The rail road was 
speedily constructed and the cars rolled up the beautiful 
valley to Seward early in October, when there was general 
rejoicing all along the line. Milford was now happy, as she 
was connected with the outside world in general, and with 
the county-seat in particular, by rail. There were enemies 



170 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

of the road steadily and persistently at work, however. We 
will not attempt to divine their motives. It may have been 
the dear people that they were interested in, or it may have 
been spite work. Be that as it was, an injunction suit was 
commenced aprainst the issuing and delivering the county 
bonds, and also those of C, G, J, and O precincts, leaving I 
to look out for itself. 

It was the undoubted right of a citizen and tax payer in 
the county, or any precinct thereof, to commence an in- 
junction suit, and have all matters thoroughly sifted in the 
courts as to the legality of the proposition, and also the 
legality of election and the returns, and it was without ques- 
tion the duty of all officers, having the custody of the bonds, 
to obey the order of the courts, and let consequences take 
care of themselves; but in this case there was some trickery 
that will hardly bear the light of day. It seems that the 
county clerk, Thomas Graham, was away from home, and 
the business of the office was left in the hands of his deputy. 
Perhaps it is not expedient to state all we know, yet it seems 
clearly proper that these historical sketches should be true, 
and we can hardly pass over this important matter without 
relating the whole truth so far as we know it. 

It seems that there was an inordinate desire on the part 
of the deputy clerk (Ed O'Keefe) and the board of county 
commissioners to evade the injunction, and in the night- 
time these persons took the seal of the county, and slipped 
away to David City in Butler county, and signed and placed 
the seal of the county upon the bonds there, and then re- 
turned to Seward and made their record of their proceedings 
as if all had been regular. What motives prompted these 
gentlemen to perform the important duty of their office in 
Butler county, the reader may judge for himself. It is suf- 
ficient to say that they left the way open for censure, and 
accomplished nothing but a long lawsuit, in which the in- 
junction was made perpetual. There was talk that bribes 
had been used with certain parties, and that attempts were 
made to induce other prominent men to help along' this bond 
scheme by large bribes. In fact, some individuals have told 
us that they had been approached by offers of large amounts 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 171 

if they would assist in carrying the scheme through to a suc- 
cessful termination . 

As time rolled on, it developed that the people had been 
victimized, and that they had given seventy-five thousand 
dollars, or at least they had agreed by their votes to give 
that amount to another B. & M. R. R. For a few months only 
did the A. & N. maintain control of the road when it had 
passed in its checks, and we awoke to find ourselves sold, 
and with two B. & M. roads on our hands. 

The competition given our people during the fall and 
winter of 1879-80 was noticeable, and a great benefit to the 
farmers. The markets of Seward county that winter were 
about the best in the state. This had the effect of stimulat- 
ing the business of the city, and a rapid growth was the im- 
mediate result. Scores of new buildings went up and all 
went merry as a marriage bell in the spring of 1880. But 
when it became known that the B. & M. had swallowed its 
competitor, we all heard something drop, and it hurt most 
fearfully. One noticeable effect was that it reduced sudden- 
ly the number of grain dealers from about a full dozen to 
two, and the competition in the grain trade of Seward be- 
came a thing of the past. 

Seward became deathly sick, nigh unto death. This 
change fell like a dead weight on all interests. Unfortun- 
ately just at the critical moment, when level heads were 
much needed, the bond injunction case was inaugurated by 
Claudius Jones. The county clerk, Thos. Graham, was sud- 
denly called to his old home in the East on account of sick- 
ness in the family. Ed O'Keefe was his deputy left in 
charge. This gentleman was in close sympathy with railroad 
people, and so were the county commissioners, Messrs. Hul- 
burt, McKay and Bates. The strong current had swept 
sheriff Sullivan off his feet. Popular sentiment was so very 
strong in favor of the company that it was exceedingly hard 
to withstand the pressure, and people that were favorable 
to the injunction proceedings were looked upon as public 
enemies. It was urged that the people had, by overwhelm- 
ing majorities, voted the bonds, and that the effort to de- 
feat their getting them, now that the road was built, was 



172 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

considered an insult to tlie good people of the county as well 
as a great wrong to the company. 

Jones, through his attorneys, was doing his best to 
thwart the commissioners in their determination to sign 
and deliver the bonds. They were equally determined to 
carry out, so far as they could, the will of the people. Find- 
ing their every movement was closely watched by spies, 
(there were little games played on the part of both parties 
that they would hardly care to see paraded in print.) The 
commissioners, fearing every moment that the injunction 
papers would be served, authentic report has it that the de- 
puty clerk took the county seal one dark night and met the 
commissioners at David City where the bonds were signed 
with the intention of delivering them over to the attorneys 
of the company. In the meantime the injunction papers 
were secured and the sheriff was requested to serve the no- 
tice upon the Board, which he refused to do. when Hon. R. 
S. Nerval, one of the attorneys for plaintiff, read the notice 
to them and warned them of the danger in store for them if 
they disobeyed its mandates. The commissioners were 
somewhat scared just then and concluded not to pass the 
bonds into the hands of the company, but under the advice 
of Attorney S. B. Galey, they determined to get the bonds 
far out of reach and beyond the jurisdiction of the court. 
So the chairman, Mr. G. P. Hulburt, jumped on a locomo- 
tive with the bonds and hurried to Kansas City, Missouri, and 
deposited them in a bank for safe keeping. When the case 
came up for a hearing, the learned Judge considered this 
next a kin to contempt, and the commissioners and the at- 
torneys of the rail-road here ordered to immediately place 
those bonds within the court's jurisdiction before they could 
have any chance to plead to the complaint. The bonds were 
brought from Kansas City and placed in a bank vault at York, 
Nebraska, pending the trial. 

The grounds upon which the plaintiff claimed the injunc- 
tion was that the bond prospositions were for the Lincoln 
and Northwestern Rail Road Company or the Blue valley and 
Northwestern railroad company. The proposition in this 
form was submitted to the county also to C, G, J, O, and P 
precincts. It was yet uncertain whether the road would come 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 173 

up the valley from Crete or up middle creek from Lincoln. 
So they innocently got Blue valley in the proposition to catch 
P precinct, but in the proposition submitted to I precinct 
it was simply the Lincoln and Northwestern company. The 
court held that double-headers would not do, but that so far 
as I precinct was concerned that the proposition was proper 
and legal and that they were fully entitled to the privilege of 
paying their little three thousand dollars and they have en- 
joyed the privilege of taxing themselves through the years 
to pay the interest and principal. The case was appealed, 
but the supreme court affirmed the judgment of the court 
below, but inasmuch as there were seven distinct propositions, 
one for the county and one for each of six precincts and that 
the bonds were held good as against one precinct, one sev- 
enth part of all the costs were charged up to the Plaintiff, 
Claudius Jones, viz: $45.07, the whole costs in the case being 
1315.49. 

It is proper to say that Mr. Hulburt denies that the seal 
was taken to Butler county or that the commissioners met 
there and signed the bonds, but somehow evidence was pretty 
plain as other people understood it that they did "all the 
same.'' Mr. Hulburt also claims that he personally saved 
the bonds from falling into the railroad company's hands. 
We don't just understand how he could dare do otherwise af- 
ter the injunction was served. Mr. Hulburt does not ex- 
plain what motives he had in riding a locomotive all the way 
to Kansas City with the bonds, and leaving them there out 
of the jurisdiction of the Nebraska courts. 

It seems that the injunction was sustained by a legal 
technicality, but in view of the fact that it proved to be built 
in the interest of the B.& M. company, there were few tears 
shed by our people that the matter turned as it did. How- 
ever the railroad was a good thing for those sections of the 
county that had no outlet. While "I" precinct paid for "the 
whistle yet it was worth to its people many times its cost. 
It has proved a blessing to Milford and the Blue valley out- 
side the immediate vicinity of Seward. It is questionable as 
to whether it was a blessing or a detriment to Seward. One 
thing is certain it gave us about thirty miles of road to tax. 
It gives many people facilities for travel and transportation 



174 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

of freight that they could not have without it. It gave Sew- 
ard people a double track to Lincoln and extra facilities to 
get there and back again and it also brings us into much closer 
relations with the people both north and south. It has helped 
to develop Seward county and that is a most important 
point, even if it does not afford any competition in business. 
It caused the building two neat little towns, viz: Pleasant Dale 
and Sfcaplehurst and gives a shipping station at Ruby and it 
infused such new life into Milford that it is one of the best 
towns of its size in the state. It seems a little rough on "I" 
precinct that she is called upon to pay all the bonds for the 
thirty miles of road that benefits so many other localities 
equally with herself. 

The year 1879 was a prosperous one. The building of 
thirty miles of new railroad gave an impetus to business and 
in city and county things moved. The corn crop was excel- 
lent, and brought a fair price. Farmers were prosperous, 
and made valuable improvements. The city improved under, 
the stimulus of a new road and the promise of better freight 
rates. Milford sprang forward with a bound, being awakened 
from her stupor by the sound of the locomotive whistle 
The new town of Staplehurst was founded and also Pleasant 
Dale, and all was going merry as a marriage bell until the 
spring of 1880, when calamities came thick and fast upon 
us. The winter had been a dry one and the earth had be- 
come a bed of dust. The freezing and thawing of the fields 
without any moisture had made it into a vast bed of loose 
dust, and as the wind sometimes blows in the spring time in 
Nebraska this proved a favorable time to make a reputation. 
Most of the spring wheat had been sown (up to this time 
spring wheat was our most staple production) when the 
wind began to blow a gale from the north and it kept the 
atmosphere black with fine dust for some days. It became 
so terrific that man or beast could hardly withstand it. We 
were reminded of the stories of the sand storms of the desert. 
The fine dust found a way into the best of the houses, so 
that they became almost untenable and would have been de- 
serted if the poor distracted inmates had known where to go, 
but they just had to grin and bear it. There was no escape. 
The dust as fine as powder was piled up along hedge rows 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 175 

and other obstructions like great snow drifts. Some places 
it was from three to four feet high, (some say drifts were 
five feet high). 

Thousands of bushels of sown wheat went south, the 
Lord only knows how far, without bills of lading attached. 
Many places the fields that had been plowed were stripped of 
the soil as deep as it had been plowed. This condition did 
not augur well for the wheat crop. The spring and summer 
was dry, and all crops were short. Just now while our j^eople 
were laboring under the fearful forebodings of drouth the 
news came to us that the Lincoln and Northwestern railroad 
had thrown up the sponge and had passed into the hands of 
the B. & M. Company. This made Seward sick. She had 
so much doted on competition in freights. Now her hopes 
were blasted and she was clothed in sackcloth and rolling in 
the dust. The Windsor house had been commenced before 
the depression had fairly set in and was finished during the 
year, but stood idle a solid year before parties could be in- 
duced to open it. All business languished, farm lands were 
a drug in the market and the only sales were made by the 
sheriff. 

Mechanics and labors deserted the city and there were 
more idle houses than in any time of her history. Under the 
stimulus of a railroad for which the people in the north and 
south parts of the county that had waited so long kept up 
their courage pretty well and did not suffer as did Seward. 
Poor Seward had hoped for so much and had got let down 
so hard that for a time she was dazed and almost ready to 
give up the ghost. During these financial troubles we were 
doomed to other serious experience. For the third time our 
community was startled by the news of a murder. This time 
it was of the nature of a bloody tragedy. It is not a pleasant 
duty for a historian to relate such outrageous horrors yet it 
appears to be his duty. About six miles north and east of 
Seward at what was known as the Bates school house there 
was a protracted meeting being held, and at this meeting 
was the scene of one of the most desperate tragedies that has 
blackened the pages of Nebraska history. In the month of 
March 1880, in "B" precinct just south of the present village 
of Bee a congregation of the citizens was gathered for the 



176 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 

purpose of. woi'ship. There were a number of young men in 
the neighborhood that had not received the proper training, 
else they had forgotten that one of the chief corner stones of 
our government is that every individual shall have the right 
to worship God according to the dictates of his own con- 
science and that no man may molest or make them afraid or 
in any way interfere with these sacred rights. These young- 
sters had on several occasions molested these meetings and 
seemed incorrigible in their efforts to break up the meetings 
and, as the sequel proves, they were not met by the church 
people in that Christian spirit, so ably. set forth by the great 
apostle where he warned his people that the better way was 
to "overcome evil with good" If this mandate had been fol- 
lowed to the letter on that dreadful night instead of the hor- 
rid tragedy some good might have been accomplished. 

The row had been fully contempted by both the roughs 
and the church people. The rowdies went fully armed and 
intent on mischief. It was fully expected that there would 
be trouble, and the church people prepared themselves in the 
wrong way to defend their rights, they provided themselves 
clubs and one at least Wm. Bates, a most worthy and re- 
spectable citizen, so far forgot himself as to carry a revolver. 
There was little doubt, but the church people had endured 
much by the wreckless fellows coming there and disturbing 
the meetings, but they greatly erred in judgment in trying 
to take the law into their own hands. There was no proper 
excuse for carrying clubs or revolvers into church at that 
late day in our land of law. The roughs came as was ex- 
pected, and were ready and anxious to get into trouble and 
when people are looking for trouble they can usually find it. 
The belligerent feelings soon found vent in hot words which 
were quickly followed by blows. It is not definitely known 
who or which party struck the first blow. Soon revolvers 
were brought into play and carnage began in earnest. The 
scene was revolting in the extreme resulting in the killing 
outright of William Bates that had always been considered a 
most excellent citizen. Hillard Thomas was so severely 
wounded that he died of his injuries. James Thomas re- 
ceived a serious tlesh wound in the hip. Israel Bates had 
a flesh wound on the thigh and Luther Bates got a severe 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 177 

cut on the head with a spade or shovel. It seems that the 
Bates family and the Thomas family had had personal trouble 
for some time previous, but it is not known who may have 
been most to blame, but in this horrible tragedy it is evident 
that both parties were in a degree to blame. 

As before stated the Bates were people of good repute, 
one of them had been a County Commissioner. They were 
zealous church members, but they had the one weakness of 
letting rash tempers get the better of them and were quick 
to resent an insult or injury; rather too much so for followers 
of Him who taught us to do good to those who despitefully 
use us. They did wrong in carrying clubs or revolvers into 
a religious meeting in our land of law and order. They had 
no right to do it. It was unlawful, un-Christian and unneces- 
sary. If the unruly persons had shown themselves incorig- 
able so that kind words and Christian courtesy could not 
reach theii* case it would have been easy to obtain the help 
of peace officers. Of the Thomas family we know personal- 
ly, but little, but we can make no possible excuse for any 
party that will go into a religious meeting for the purpose of 
disturbing it. Personal enmity of certain members of the 
congregation is no valid excuse for such outlawry and how- 
ever much the Bates family may have erred in their rash- 
ness, still it must be the just judgment of an unprejudiced 
world that the Thomas family and their abettors were the 
cause of this fearful catastrophy. 

There was something very curious about the terrible 
crime that passes our understanding. It was never investi- 
gated by the courts. It seems very curious such a scene of 
lawless butchery with such far reaching consequences should 
not have been thoroughly sifted by the courts and the re- 
sponsibility placed where it belongs. The grand jury tried to 
investigate the matter, but somehow they did not seem com- 
petent to place the blame and the matter was dropped. In 
these bloody pages must also be recorded another wretched 
murder at "Grover," then known as East Milford. Samuel 
Bowker and Milton and John Granger (two brothers) were 
the chief actors. The trouble grew out of the marriage of 
one of Old Mr. Granger's daughters. The old man Granger 
and Bowker got into a quarrel about the matter and Bowker 



178 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

was somewhat of a pugilist and ready to fight "at the drop of 
the hat." He knocked Mr. Granger down. This incident 
led up to the murder. Some days later Mr. Bowker was 
passing the store of the Granger boys and was invited to 
alight from his wagon which invitation he promptly accept- 
ed, and pulled his coat and announced himself ready for the 
Granger brothers. Some hot words passed and quickly fol- 
lowed with blows, when Milton Granger drew a revolver 
and tired twice at Bowker when his antagonist knocked the 
gun from his hands. When John Granger opened fire and 
sent five or six shots at Bowker, two of which took efi'ect, one 
striking near the shoulder blade and passing down the spine 
and caused his death. Grangers were put on trial and 
pleaded guilty of manslaughter. The plea was accepted and 
they were sentenced to the State prison for ten years, which 
term they served. 

With all these troubles on our hands Seward had a genu- 
ine small pox scare which worked mischief. In the south- 
eastern part of town a family were reported to be stricken 
with the dread malady. Physicians want and made a thor- 
ough diagnosis of the case and pronounced it genuine small- 
pox. Unfortunately the place was located near our high 
school and it resulted in closing the school, and created such 
a panic that it nearly paralyzed business for a time. It would 
be most unreasonable to discredit the finding of skilled phy- 
sicians in such matter, but their views were brought into dis- 
credit and scores of peojile believe to this day (and with pret- 
ty good reason) that it was a genuine case of itch in its 
worst form, and that the poor victim was just rotting with it. 
It was currently reported that the patient broke away from 
the guards and left the city in hot haste. He was careful to 
take the malady, small pox, or itch all along with him as there 
were no traces of it left behind. This panic worked a serious 
hardship to the first graduating class, who had earned their 
degree. The examinations were in progress when the school 
was broken up. We have always thought that some means 
should have been devised to have furnished this bright class 
of young people the diplomas which they had so full earned. 
A small pox scare that was more than a scare: 
In "H" precinct, in the winter and spring of 1882, small- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 179 

pox did break out for certain and worked ruin to a large set- 
tlement. Many people died and many more were stricken, 
but by good nursing were saved from death. The county 
authorities furnished medical and pecuniary assi-stance, and 
kept a close surveillance, and it was confined to the one set- 
tlement. Drs. Hastings and Monteith were given charge of 
the patients, with proper police powers. This terrible scourge 
nearly ruined the settlement for a time. There were reported 
by Dr. Hastings sixty-two cases and seven deaths in all. 

In June, 1882, a peculiar accident occurred near Marys- 
ville. A young man by the name of Mentz was plowing corn 
near the river bank. His team became frightened and by 
some means dragged the young man into the mill-pond, 
where man and team were drowned. 

Scarcely had the excitement attending the horrible Bates 
tragedy died away when, in the spring of 1882, the same 
locality was called to witness another scene of horror and 
bloodshed. It was a most unfortunate occurrence that one 
neighborhood should be the scene of two such terrible catas- 
trophies within two short years, but in justice to the people 
we can truthfully say that the masses of B and A precincts 
are just as worthy and law-abiding citizens as are to be found 
anywhere. 

This last trouble grew out of a family wrangle, in which 
the father, mother, and children were at variance. Just 
who were most to blame for the beginning of the trouble no- 
body knows. Mr. Patrick and wife and some other members 
of the family were returning from Seward and a quarrel arose 
on the way home, which resulted in the old lady being shot 
to death. It seems that several members of the family were 
mixed into the affair. Many shots were fired at the old man 
by the boys, and he fired several shots, one of which killed 
his wife and the mother of his children. There being some 
discrepancy in the evidence in regard to the condition of af- 
fairs, and the embroglio that led to the shooting, etc., the 
old man's life was spared, and he was given a sentence 
in the state's prison for life. The murder occurred in the 
first days of April, 1882. 

The old man served a number of years of his sentence 
when the governor pardoned him. 



180 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

One of the stormy winters: 

In the month of February, 1881, this western country ex- 
perienced a series of terrible storms of drifting snow. The 
wagon roads were all blocked, railroad traffic was abandoned. 
Seward was eight days without mail. The loss of mail was 
a serious inconvenience, but w^as nothing compared to the 
want of fuel. In city and country the people were put to 
straits for fuel, and had no relief reached us just as it did, 
very much suffering would have occurred. 

The year 1881 was rather dull and monotonous, but fair 
crops and a gradual advance in price once again revived the 
drooping spirits of the people, and as 1882 was ushered in 
there were brighter skies and cheering promises of better 
days, which put a new phase on all interests. 

New people flocked in, property began to change hands 
freely, and soon prices advanced, slowly at first, but later, 
as the demand increased, prices ran up in many cases over a 
hundred per cent. Good crops in 1882 set things fairly boom- 
ing, which continued to the fall of 1884. 

Much valuable improvement was accomplished in both 
town and country. Prices of property reached the maximum 
in the winter and spring of 1884. After the presidential elec- 
tion in the fall of 18H4, all property matters were at a stand- 
still. But few immigrants came among us, and great num- 
bers of our people were violently attacked with western fever, 
and in the spring of 1885 multitudes pushed for the frontier. 
"While this seemed to work to our disadvantage for a time, it 
will prove a great blessing to us. 

It has now been demonstrated in a measure the value of 
western lands for agricultural purposes, and thus practically 
expunged from the map the last vestige of the great Ameri 
can desert, which was such a bugaboo to us during all our 
younger years. It has helped to plant farms all the way to 
the foot of the Rockies, and scores and even hundreds of 
bright towns and cities to-day dot the great plains, where 
the credulous thought a few years ago that white men would 
never attempt to make homes. This all adds stability and 
value to this region. Any and every improvement in the 
West can but add value to our homes and lands. 

Since 1880 many individuals have turned their attention 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 181 

to feeding cattle and hogs, also to the production of the tame 
grasses. 

Feeding is carried on quite extensively now, there being 
many herds fed in various parts of the county, and this in- 
dustry adds largely to the value of our staple, the corn crop. 

Timothy and clover are rapidly taking the place of the 
wild meadows, and blue grass that of the wild pastures. The 
soils and climate are especially well adapted to the produc- 
tion of grasses. 

Within a few years, also, the honey bee is receiving at- 
tention, and honey is produced profitably on many farms, 
and the industrious little servants find our luxuriant mead- 
ows and cornfields just the place for them to thrive. 

In the fall election of 1886, by popular vote the people 
determined to try towmship organization, and during 1887 
we had a board of supervisors, consisting of one member 
from each of the sixteen towns and two member from the 
city. 

For some years our people had been looking anxiously 
for an opportunity to secure to the county a competing line 
of railroad. We had parleyed with the U. P. folks, but 
could get no definite answer from them, but finally when the 
Northwestern company were building their Lincoln branch, 
fortunately, Mr. Goehner, being a senator, w^liile at Lincoln 
formed the acquaintance of some of the officials, and secured 
a hearing, wdiich resulted in further negotiations, and finally 
a proposition was submitted to build during 1887 the F. E. 
& M. V. branch through our county; provided sixty thous- 
and dollars in twenty year, six per cent bonds were voted to 
the company, The propositions were submitted to the city 
and B, G, K, and M towns, as follows: City, $15,000; B, G, 
K, and M, $10,000 each, and L, $5,000. The propositions 
were voted by large majorities in each township, and the 
road was completed in the fall of 1887 and regular trains run- 
ning in connection with the great system in the East and 
North. We are happy to say that the road is well built in 
every particular, and we believe the people have made a good 
bargain in securing it. Since it was opened for business there 
has been a marked change in the freight tariffs for the better. 
We are all satisfied that we row have a road that the B. & M. 



182 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

cannot swallow, for it would be like Jonah attempting to 
swallow the whale. 

Now we have three railroads, because while two are under 
one management they give us additional outlets, and the 
new line will hold prices down just as well as if both its com- 
petitors were in different hands. The new road adds directly 
a large amount of taxable property to the county, opens up 
a vast new tield for enterprise, and gives a new impetus to 
all classes of business. 

On the completion of this new rail road there were three 
new towns located via. Bee in "B" precinct, Goehner in "K" 
precinct and Cordovia in the .southwestern portion of "M" 
precinct which are all bright villages with good shipping 
facilities. 

Beaver Crossing had been a little cross-road trading 
point for many years. It had a very creditable flour mill 
and a rich agricultural country surrounding it but it never 
had a chance to make much of a show in competition with 
rail road towns. Now after a long Rip Van Winkle sleep, 
Beaver Crossing arouses herself, brushes the cobwebs off 
that had accumulated during the years and concluded to 
take her proper place with our other business towns. The 
village is situated in the valley of the South Blue in one of 
the favored spots of all our western country. It is strange 
what a revolution the shrill whistle of the locomotive can 
accomplish in a community. 

All the good people of the community had been cons- 
cientiously opposed to voting railroad bonds up to 1887, 
and many times they with one accord cast their votes against 
the hateful propositions. But when they heard the glad 
news that a locomotive was headed their way of course 
there came a sudden change over the spirit of their dreams 
and they received a change of heart and it did them good 
"you know." Like most new converts they rolled up their 
sleeves and went to work with a "will," not only to get the 
road, but to make the best of an opportunity. 

It has resulted in the building of a most beautiful vil- 
lage with large and flourishing business interests. The 
village had not long been awake while stirring around try- 
ing to turn something up as all live towns do, when she 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 183 

made a most wonderful discovery of value beyond compre- 
hension. She learned that underneath this ^rand valley 
there flows a great subterraneous river that is ready and anx- 
ious to leap to the surface whereever it is invited and 
ready to give an abundance of pure life-giving water to ir- 
rigate the thirsty fields. At this writing there are in active 
operation over four hundred flowing wells yeilding an ample 
supply for man and beast in town and country for many 
miles up and down this broad valley. The supply is suffi- 
cient to irrigate all the valley land for ten miles up and 
down the river. The water is uniformly of excellent quality. 
Beaver Crossing has an ample water supply without great 
expense, but the greatest value is to the field and garden 
which are independent of rainfall. The flowing wells have 
added immensely to the value of the lands that can be 
irrigated. That tract of land has now become one of 
the best potato fields in the Northwest. They never 
fail to have a potato crop at Beaver Crossing. During the 
season of 1904 there was shipped from their station ninety- 
six car-loads of five hundred bushels each to the different 
markets. Every class of vegetables and the grasses can 
also be brought to the greatest degree of perfection. Beav- 
er Crossing has a bonanza in her flowing wells. The water 
is struck at the depth of a hundred and twenty feet in the 
valley and rises accordingly to the altitude of the land. 
Some places it just rises to the surface and in others it rises 
to a height of twenty feet. 

The village has grown and is now growing quite rapid- 
ly. It contains the largest store in the county and we be- 
lieve in the state outside the large cities. All business in- 
terests are fairly represented. There are a goodly number 
of merchantile establishments, such as dry goods, groceries, 
hardware, furniture and many other shops. A good sub- 
stantial bank that has just found a new home in a beautiful 
brick structure, a very neat hotel, two livery barns, two 
graiii elevators, a large lumber yard and scores of beautiful 
new cottages. The printing office and the Pride. Beaver 
Crossing "Pride'' must not be forgotten, neither their splen- 
did schools and the numerous churches. A splendid village 
of prosperous and happy people counting 500 souls. 



CH4.PTER XII 



Double Murder 1890-1892— Conditions— Panic of 1893— Political changes 
— Sheriff the i^rincipal salesman^Brighter days — Property advances 
— Improvements— Farmers prosper — Bank deposits — General pros- 
perity has become a resident — Good health— Happy homes— Great 
things in store. 



DOUBLE MURDER AND SUICIDE 

The year 1889 brought another horrible tragedy. This 
time it was in the northwestern part of the county. In the 
southern part of "D" precinct there lived a family by the 
name of Leavitt. They were old residents, but unfortunate- 
ly they were not popular with their neighbors. There had 
been much trouble and contention about their stock and 
various matters. Mr. Leavitt was a man in general bad re- 
pute, and it made against him in this terribly trying hour. 
As appeared in the evidence before the grand jury, of which 
the author was a member, Mr. and Mrs. Leavitt had an er- 
rand one evening at Gresham, about five or six miles dis- 
tant, leaving their two young daughters in charge of the 
house. Upon their return late in the evening, they found 
the two little girls (one about eleven and the other thirteen 
years old) lying in the yard with their throats cut. 

Suspicions were aroused against different parties. A 
grand jury was speedily summoned and a vast number of 
witnesses were summoned. The jury was in session for ten 
days and every avenue was searched diligently. It developed 
that there was a deadly enmity exisiting against the Leavitts 
in the community, and some were ready to believe that the 
old couple had murdered their own children; but there was 
no evidence to ju.stify such a suspicion, only that their gen- 
eral reputation as citizens was not of a high order. There 
was no evidence of any possible motive to commit such a 
deed. Some of the neighbors seemed very little concerned 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 185 

in the matter, according- to their own testimony. We will 
give a few questions and the answers. 

Ques. "Mr. , where were you when you heard of 

the murder?" 

Ans. "Attending to my own business." 

Ques. "How did it affect you?" 

Ans. "I didn't care, it was none of my business." 

Ques. "Did you go down there?" 

Ans. "No." 

Ques. "How far do you live from the Leavitt's?" 

Ans. "About three-quarters of a mile." 

Ques. "Why did you not go down and see the murdered 
children?" 

Ans. "I did not care, and I was busy at my work." 

This is the way the evidence ran with one neighbor, and 
yet scarcely no suspicion was placed at his door, only a sus- 
picion that he was brutal. 

On an adjoining farm was a man by the name of Gerd 
Stienblack who had had much trouble with Leavitt about 
unruly stock, and there was much bad blood existing When 
he was told of the murder, he did not care enough to go and 
see, although less than half a mile distant. However he 
seemed agitated, but gave vent to the idea that it was no 
concern of his. Stienblack was summoned before the jury, 
and when closely and sharply cross questioned, he became 
much excited, and as the old saying is, "He danced like a 
chicken on a hot griddle." He was on the witness stand a 
half day, and became so frightened or maddened that he 
went home and hanged himself in his own barn. 

There was a widespread suspicion in the jury room and 
among the people that he knew all about the murder, but 
the jury was not able to agree or to fix the awful crime at 
the door of any person, and with many it remains a mystery 
to this day. But now after the long years have passed, we 
are free to say that we have never had occasion to change 
our mind that at least one of the guilty parties met his God 
before that jury closed its session. Below we give a letter 
left by Mr. Stienblack, in German, but translated by Rev. 
Father Gruber. The original translation is now in the hands 
of R. P. Anderson, who was prosecuting attorney at the time 



186 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

of the tragedy and suicide. The letter is without date, and 
reads as follows: 

"I do not w" ant to have spread my name town. There- 
fore, greeting once more. I am not guilty of the deed. This 
my wife and daughter know as well as I, for I dared to tell 
the truth. But it is too late now. And so has the deed 
been attributed also to me, of which nevertheless I am quite 
innocent. My beloved wife and daughter, God will give 
that w^e see each other in eternity again. Gerd Stienblack. " 

The years 1890-92 were uneventful. Everthing went 
smoothly. The people were in a fairly prosperous condition. 
There w^as but little property changing hands, but prices of 
lands were steadily increasing in value. There were some \ 
good improvements made both in country and city as well 
as in the villages. Things looked fairly bright up to the fall 
election of 1892. 

The change in political matters may or may not have 
been the cause for the change in financial affairs. Be that 
as it may, a change came in 1893 that was most disastrous 
to all interests. There came a general stagnation of business 
and prices fell rapidly. About all the property sales were 
by the sheriff. Improvements were discontinued. Lands 
did not decrease much in value, but there was no demand, 
and holders were forced to hang on until brighter days 
should come. Crops were very slim all through the panic 
years, and prices were not satisfactory. Wheat was often 
quoted from 35 to 45 cts., corn from 9 to 15 cts,, w^hile hogs 
and all kinds of stock were low. Horses seemed to have 
lost their value, and in some instances were killed to get 
them out of the way. 

There was no change for the better until 1896, when 
things began to brighten up. Land buyers began to look 
around and make inquiries. In 1897, prices of all kinds of 
property began to advance and become salable. From that 
tiin3 to the present, landed property has steadily advanced 
in value until it has about doubled in price in all parts of 
the county. Improvements have kept pace with the general 
prosperity. Th.; tow^ns have improved greatly, and hun- 
dreds of good houses and barns have been erected. The bank 
deposits have steadily increased until they now contain near 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 187 

$2,000,000. The whole face of the county has chanf^ed for 
the better. Our farmers are nearly all very prosperous, 
and so are the business people of the towns and city. Labor 
has been in great demand at good prices. Mechanics are 
overcrowded with work. The business of the railroads has 
been very satisfactory. (See papers on freight in and out of 
Seward.) 

Certainly "Gen. Prosperity" has sojourned with our 
people for the past seven years, and we hope he may make 
this his permanent abiding place. There has no great ca- 
lamity befallen our people for a number of years. We have 
been free from pestilential diseases. No violent storms ex- 
cept a few streaks of hail have laid waste our county. Our 
crops have not always been full, but enough has blessed the 
people so that want has been a stranger to us. Our varied 
products have averaged quite satisfactory so that every pru- 
dent and industrious farmer has made headway. One year, 
1901, the egg crop was destroyed by the extreme heat of the 
summer, which precluded the shipment to market. 

The egg and poultry interests have grown to immense 
proportions. The reader may be astonished at the figures, 
but the egg product reached $200,000 for the last year, and 
the poultry nearly as much. For two years wheat has been 
exceedingly high, ranging from 90 cts. to $1.00. Corn has 
also bourne a high price, ranging from 30 to 45 cts. Hogs 
have ranged from $4.50 to $5.50 per cwt. , and other products 
in proportion. Common labor in the city has been in great 
demand at from $1.75 to $2.00 per day, and mechanics have 
plenty of calls at from $3.00 to $5.00 per day. Good farm 
hands command $25 per month with excellent board and 
washing. There seems to be no valid reason why these 
prosperous times should not continue. Everything looks 
favorable. Vast improvements are projected and the de- 
mands for labor and labor's products are steadily increasing. 

Seward county, the home of our choice, chosen when we 
were in the prime of our manhood's strength, the home 
where the most of our children were born, the home of pleas- 
ant memories, and where peace and plenty have generally 
rewarded our efforts, but where at times we have been over- 



188 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

shadowed with dark clouds of want and sorrow; when tirst 
we set foot on thy soil we loved thee, and now when long 
years have passed and we are on the shadowy side of the 
hill of life, we love thee still. God bless Seward county and 
all her people, is our humble prayer. 



CHAPTER Xm 



HISTORIC LETTERS 

As a part and a most valuable one of our history, we are glad to be 
able to give the reader the benefit of the following interesting and in- 
structive letters. Several of them were contributed to the first edition 
of m}' work, but they are of such value that we deem it the proper 
thing to give them a place in these pages. Some of the writers have 
gone to their long homes "but their works do follow them." They 
acted well their part and we cherish their memory. 

Many of these contributions are from our >oung people that have 
grown up among us. They are worthy of careful reading and as the 
years come and go, they will grow in public favor. In them will be 
found many landmarks of history and they will be quoted by the com- 
ing historians through all time. 

"My Wilderness Home in Childhood" — Mrs. Nettie M. Cox Pingree. 

"From Memories Walls" — Prof. Margaret E. Thompson. 

"Indian Scares" — Mrs. Sarah F. Imlay Anderson. 

"KecoUections of Frontier Life in Boyhood." — Prof. A. E. Sheldon. 

"Our old dog Mike Stole the Meat. "- -H. A. Brisbin. 

"Snakes in the Kitchen." — Mrs. M. Frink. 

" Village of Bee. "—E. H. Noxan. 

"Ugly Bachelor Jumped our Claim." — Mr. and Mrs. M. S. McCallister. 

"Democratic Newspapers. " — W. H. Smith. 

"Orchards and Tree Planting," — Elisha Kinney. 

"Groves and Orchards. " — Samuel J. Welch. 

"My Success With Fruit. "—J. B. Courtright. 

"Pioneering in Childhood." — Miss Lj-dia Dillenbeck. 

"Milford Schools. "—Mrs. A. C. Rawls. 

"Hardships and Privations of Pioneers. " — Miss Inez Frink. 

"Oak Grove Settlement. "—E. W. Olney. 

"Camden Settlement." — Mrs. H. W. Parker. 

"West Mills Settlement. "—I. M. K. Johnson. 

"B" Precinct Settlement. "—F. M. Timbiln. 

"G" Precinct Settlement." — James A. Brown. 

"Grasses." — Hon. Calvin J. Wright. 

"Schools of the County. "—Superintendent E. Koch. 



190 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

THE WILDERNESS HOME OF MY CHILDHOOD 



NETTIE M, COX PINGREE 

"The hills are deai'e.st which our childish feet 

Have climbed the earliest; and the streams most sweet 

Are ever those at wbich our young- lips drank. 

Stooped to their waters o'er the mossy bank. "— Whittier, 

Though years have passed since our last visit to the old 
homestead, visions come to us of the woods and valleys by 
the sparkling waters of the beautiful Blue. 

The river winds its crooked way through the valley 
with many a curve, forming broad acres of woodland which 
were a perfect paradise to us during the w^hole year. There 
in the spring- time, the green grass and violets formed a 
beautiful carpet for our feet, while around us the alder and 
wild plum blossoms made fragrant the air with their sweet 
scented odor. 

Down the garden path bordered with moss roses and 
morning glories, we would speed away to the river, bait our 
hooks for tish, and cross the foot log and follow the path 
through the woods to the schoolhouse. That little rough 
board shanty, sodded all around, and the home-made, knife- 
marked desks have given place to new" and better ones. 
The children upon the playground are strange to us, but the 
same games of "blind man's buff," and "drop the handker- 
chief" are played by them as we played them long years 
since. 

The grape-vine swing must not be forgotten, for there, 
with choicest flowers, was crowned the queen of May, and 
also, in childish sport, were wedded two schoolmates, just 
twenty years ago. 

Under the welcome shade of the old walnut tree by the 
ford, we studied our Sunday-school lessons, and were often 
lulled to sleep by the merry song of the wild birds. 

During the long summer days, wading around the sand- 
bars and gathering shells afforded us a delightful pastime, 
and as the sun was seeking the western horizon, we would 
mount old Ned, the family horse, ford the river, and go to 
the farther pasture after the cows. 

Each land hath its shadows, and each home hath its 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 191 

ghosts, and ours was not an exception. The "Bisr grove" 
was the most beautiful of all the "bends," on account of the 
heavy timber and dense foliage. There the sugar maple 
trees abounded, and there grew the most berries, the latter 
being very important, for many a new dress and coat were 
bought with the profits realized from their sale. 

One evening at dusk something large and white, resem- 
bling a great bear, was seen to come out of these woods, and 
although we afterward learned that it was only a neighbor 
boy with a bed-tick over his head, we never ventured again 
into that grove without company. 

When the autumn sun changed the foliage and ripened 
the fruits, then was our harvest. It would be difficult to de- 
cide who worked the harder to store away the winter's sup- 
ply of walnuts and acorns, we children or the squirrels. 
Perhaps we tired of the labor more quickly than our little 
forest friends, for frequently the restful shade of the great 
oaks would be too tempting, and we seated ourselves by 
their roots and wove wreathes of the brilliant-hued leaves, 
while the autumn winds sighed and rustled the branches 
overhead, making a beautiful accompaniment to our fancies. 
But when winter came with its hoary frosts and covered the 
earth with its blanket of snow, and the cold winds whistled 
through the barren timber, Lhen, like all the children of the 
woods, the most comfortable place for us was home. That 
little log cabin, with its great fireplace -and clay-chinked 
walls, is the most cherished of all places. The dove-cote 
upon its roof, the cave behind it, the box-alder and cotton- 
wood trees, and the old fashioned well will always be re- 
membered. 

It seems but yesterday that father brought in the huge 
back-log and built a brilliant fire in front of it, then popped 
the corn for our first Christmas eve in our new home. He 
took us children on his knee and told us of Santa Claus, and 
liow he would come down the huge chimney and fill our 
stockings, if we would hurry off to bed. Mother tucked the 
covers carefully about us and resumed her knitting, while 
father read aloud, by the light of the blazing brushwood, 
the latest news of the rebellion, which was then raging with 
all its horrors. 



192 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

We watched the shadows cast by the flickering light of 
the burning embers upon the hearth until we fell asleep, 
dreaming, as all children do, of Kris Kringle and his won- 
derful sleigh full of toys. In the morning, when the sun's 
first rays peeped through the curtains of the one window in 
the cabin, with a bright Christmas greeting, we hastened to 
our stockings, to find them overflowing with popcorn and 
doughnuts. Away down in the toe we found a stick of can- 
dy, and a pair of lovely red mittens with little snowflakes all 
over them. We were a happy little band, and although 
many Christmases have come and gone, and Santa Claus has 
filled our stocking with a far more lavish hand, yet none will 
have the same place in our memory as the one of '64. 

But now, far removed from those loved scenes of child- 
hood, and looking out upon the broad expanse of prairie and 
corn land, our minds will naturally wander back to the old 
homestead, and decide that, though home is home where'er 
it may be, yet that halo cannot be taken away from our 
father's hearthstone. 

The author of the above beautiful pen picture was born at 
Nebraska City, August 6, 1861. and with her parents she had 
all the experiences of a child life in the wilderness. She 
was but three years old when her parents made settlement 
on the homestead. She had her first lessons at the home 
hearthstone, where she learned to read before she was four 
years old. At six she commenced her school days in the old 
log schoolhouse. She commenced her career as teacher in 
the spring before she was fifteen, and completed her first 
term in what was known as the Anderson district before 
she was fifteen. She earned her diploma in the Seward 
high school in IHHO, but never received it on account of the 
small pox scare which broke out in the school. She had 
a very honorable career as teacher in various parts of the 
county and in the city schools. She took a great interest in 
Chautauqua work, and although she was never permitted to 
meet with a circle, she was graduated from the course and 
received the white seal for proficiency in the work. She 
was a great reader and a most careful student. She married 
Frank P. Pingree. The family removed to Kansas and set- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 193 

tied at Colby in Thomas county, and helped develop that 
wild regjion. One son was born to them, Logan W. In 1891 
they removed to Washington, D. C, where Mrs. Pingree 
died January, 1892. She was the second daughter of the 
author. 



FROM MEMORY'S WALLS 



MARGARET E, THOMPSON 



Our good friend, the author, with no uncertain tone and 
mien, bids me write something for the pages of his volume. 
Remembering the awe which he inspired in barefooted child- 
hood, the respect which supplanted it as the milestones could 
no longer be written in a single digit, and the "cup 'o kind- 
ness" so of ten poured around the family hearthstones, I com- 
ply . And yet, not for these memories alone or primarily do 
I write, but because of the memory of a sunnyhaired, sunny- 
faced, sunnyhearted childhood's friend of mine,* whose com- 
radeship made glad the years even to the time when she left 
her Kansas home to dwell in that house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens. Were she with us her pen would 
sketch pictures of childhood's happy hours,- -and could she 
speak to us from behind the veil, how deaf would be all ears 
to every page but hers. But she, like David's child, can- 
not come back, and the memories of the days that are no 
more, grow richer and sweeter with the years that lie be- 
tween. 

Memories of childhood! How haloed do they become! 
How impossible — undesirable — to separate between fact and 
fancy in regard to them! 

My earliest memories have to do with life in and about 
the Walnut Creek ranch, and a veritable wonderland has it 
long since become. I could not now find its equal though I 
searched from coast to coast. The long gently rising hill in 
front of the ranch over which the sun rose so tardily in win- 
ter, and the shorter, steeper one in the rear, behind which 
he disappeared all too soon on any day; the valley widening 
southward; the creek, sometimes a mere thread of water, 



Mrs. Nettie M. Cox Pingree. — Author. 



194 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

again a rushing torrent crossed with difficulty in the wagon- 
bed ferry, and yet again a swelling flood rising higher and 
higher until it entered, unwelcomed but not unannounced, 
the ranch house itself, driving the family into what, by 
courtesy, was called "up stairs;" the trees skirting the creek, 
one of which gained a deep pathos because in its shadows 
was laid to rest the body of our little sister — thus Sorrow, 
life's great teacher, gave us our first lesson, emphasizing it 
with what no child forgets, the first memory of his mother's 
tears. All these things rise before my mind at the mention 
of the Walnut Creek ranch. Then the freight trains, some- 
times long enough, with their big wagons and many mules 
or oxen, to reach from hilltop to hilltop and cut us ofl" for 
many anxious minutes from the house if perchance we were 
playing in the barnyard across the road. The times when 
the freighters camped at the ranch, and, if the night was 
cold, filled the big "Pilgrim Room" full to overflowing as 
they warmed and smoked and told the stories of the plains 
before the roaring fireplace, on which occasion we children 
were not even expected "to be seen but not heard." 

How well I remember the early night hours made un- 
forgettable by the calling and answering down the valley 
and over, the hills of the deep-chested gray wolves and the 
sharp-voiced coyotes as they sat upon the section corner 
mounds and howled gloriously. I do not know how this 
music may have impressed our elders, but to us children it 
was entrancing and even now the howls of the wolves in 
Lincoln and Central Parks cast over me a stronger spell 
than strains from Inness Band or the Chicago Orchestra, 
for with them rise again compellingly the awe, the wonder, 
the charm and the magic of the universe in the days when 
the heart and the mind were young. 

And the later liours of the night when, from time to 
time we were awakened by the ominous bawling of the 
cattle and we heard father and the men hurrying out 
with their guns to kill, if possible, the wolf or wolves that 
had attacked an animal, usually a well grown calf, and thus 
terrorized the enringed and inefl'ectually bawling herd. 
How distinct in memory is one sunset hour when our favor- 
ite cow and calf did not return with the other cattle and we 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 195 

with mother went up the long hill but got no trace of them 
until when near its top we began to hear the pained, contin- 
uous bawling of the calf and the hoarse, enraged, . feverish 
bawling of the cow. When we reached the hilltop we could 
see further on in the dying light the calf raised on its fore 
feet in agonized effort to escape, the while a big gray wolf, 
having cut its hamstrings, was feasting on its hindquarters 
while the companion wolf was holding the maddened cow 
at bay as she circled round and round in vain attempt to de- 
fend her offspring. My mother called pitying words to the 
cow and calf but dai'ed not go near them and finally before 
the end of the tragedy she led us away down the hill in the fal- 
ling twilight trying in vain to sooth our sobs with the assur- 
ance that father would give us another calf in the morning. 

How^ free the life of the frontier child! When the near- 
est neighbor lives seven miles away and the next to the 
nearest fifteen, one's liberties are not seriously circum- 
scribed. Out in all weathers and usually from morning un- 
til night with only occasional returns to the house in bread 
and butter interests, for denim dresses seldom tore and na- 
ture's shoestrings never became untied, it is not strange 
that a doctor was to us almost an unknown quantity. Our 
chief delight centered in our horses (mine wa^s always a pony) 
and we spent most of our waking hours on their backs. My 
sister attained more than local fame for being a fine, fearless 
rider and there were few horses on the ranch which she 
could not control. I seldom now see the comparatively 
hedged-about life of children even in our smaller towns with- 
out being devoutly grateful that our childhood was spent 
out under the open sky as free as were the winds (and we 
had winds and winds in those days,) and the birds (how few 
they were,) and the squirrels. 

Life under these conditions is quite another story for 
grown people, especially women, with its social and relig- 
ious privations and its hard work, but for children it is a long 
dream of unmixed bliss. How to secure for children this 
desirable and unrestricted firsthand contact with nature dur- 
ing their plastic years and to spare their parents the severe 
and often vital separation from the influences which feed both 
the mind and soul is, and always has been, the problem of 



196 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the frontier. The present generation' httle realizes even 
here in our own county at wliat a cost to many men and 
women the splendid prairies have been transformed into 
what are recognized as some of the richest and most desir- 
able farms in this proverbially rich-soiled state. Perhaps 
one of the best results of this volume shall be to cause us to 
think upon and comprehend more adequately these things. 

What an entrancing spectacle to the child was the 
bounding, roaring, racing prairie fire of pioneer days and 
how, even when he was carried out in the night with other 
household goods for safety and deposited in the middle of a 
plowed field, he felt only the joy of a new sensation — the 
magic spell of the beauty and grand uer of one of nature's 
most magnificent and now almost impossible spectacles. 

Little need has the child of the frontier for fairy stories, 
for "Alice in Wonderlands," — for life to him is one continu- 
ous book of the fairies and his land is a more wondrous land 
than all the imaginings of Lewis Carroll's fertile brain could 
portray. 

The word "Indian" held no terrors for us children for 
were not some of our happiest hours spent in and about the 
wigwams of the Pawnees during their regular winter camp, 
but a short distance up the Creek, and were not our most 
frequent and most valued playmates from among the chil- 
dren of their chiefs? We were not given the calm joy of 
wheeling our neighbors' babies in ornate parasolled baby bug- 
gies along asphalted streets — but perhaps that was compen- 
sated for by the thrill of a dash about the ranch and across 
the creek with a chubby cheeked, searching-eyed papoose 
strapped to a board and bumping against our backs, the 
squaw mother pursuing us in the meantime in finely suppres- 
sed glee. Here, too, my sister was an expert and the squaws 
had an eye to her. It was only when the word Sioux w^as 
used in connection with the word Indian that we realized from 
the apprehensive faces of our elders that there were some- 
thing to be feared. One occasion when the word Sioux 
loomed large is written ineifaceably among my early memo- 
ries. One afternoon a ranchman from the further west came 
dashing into the yard with the message the Sioux were com- 
ing down upon us and that we must tiy at once. In the dusk 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 197 

of the evening two covered wagons drove out of the ranch- 
yard containing the family and ranchmen with guns, ammu- 
nition and provisions, and other easily portable possessions, 
leaving the cattle, house and crop to the mercy of the red- 
men. All I remember further is the child sobbing herself to 
sleep with her head in her mother's lap, the continuous rain, 
rain, rain, which fell as we journeyed farther and farther 
from home, and the return to the ranch after a few days, find- 
ing everything much as it had been left, the Sioux that time 
having committed their depredations along the Little rather 
than the West Blue. Some rain-stained books in the family 
bookcase call up even yet the gruesomeness of that experi- 
ence — our first little journey into a world greater than our 
Walnut Creek world. 

Sunday at the ranch was always a longed-for day from 
the child's standpoint, not because it was our dress up occa- 
sion — that we submitted to under protest — but from the fact 
that it was different from other days and hence satisfied to a 
degree the child's craving for variety. Naturally much work 
had to be done on Sunday — for not even in these later days 
have our friends who profess to ignore the material, been able 
to demonstrate the possibility of evolving cows that do not 
have to be milked and humans and cattle that do not have to 
be fed upon the tir.st as upon other days — but with us as little 
was done as was possible. We children felt much circum- 
scribed in our liberties by our clean clothes and shoes and 
from the fact that we were not allowed to sing secular songs, 
and whistling, horseback riding and tree climbing were ta- 
booed utterly — but all this was compensated for by the exti-a 
time that mother Avas able to give us, usually spent in study- 
ing and repeating from memory Bible verses, singing and 
telling stories — Bible stories, or in strolling out under the 
skies and talking of the marvels of creation — mother usually 
repeating some favorite Psalm on these occasions. If by 
chance we had opportunity to attend a church service held 
either in our own or some neighbor's house by some travel- 
ing missionary, it w^as an event to reckon time from for 
weeks and weeks. We all recall vividly the first Sunday 
School, held on what is now our home place, to which we 
drove in great state in a hayrack — strawrides are not the joy 



198 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

of recent years alone — calling for some of our neighbors 
who lived along the intervening miles. Later when a church 
was organized with a well attended Sunday School in con- 
nection we felt indeed metropolitan. 

The school, as well as the church, problem on the fron- 
tier is always a serious one especially when, as with us, there 
are too few settlers within a given area to warrant the form- 
ing of a public school. This my parents met by having a 
most excellent young woman, Miss Agnes Henderson, whose 
family had recently moved to Nebraska from Wisconsin, come 
into the home as teacher and companion. This arrangement 
jDroved a great joy to both children and parents and we have 
always since counted among the friends who belong to that 
inner circle our honored and beloved tirst teacher . My only 
woes of those school days, as I recall them, were my in- 
ability to remember the letter ■'H,"and my grief because I 
failed to win the prize offered to the one who should make 
the greatest progress' in studies. How soon, alas! one learns 
to regard with philosophic calmness his ability to learn 
greater lessons than that of remembei-ing the letter "H," 
and how early in life he appreciates the difficulty of realiz- 
ing Paul's injunction "So run that ye may obtain." Later 
when the vicinity became sufficiently settled to warrant the 
organization of a public school. Miss Henderson was chosen 
as its teacher and my sister and brother and I walked three 
and one-half miles, and some other children even further, to 
attend it. It was thought by our parents wise for us to be 
accompanied by a big dog in order to protect us from the 
ever possible but never realized attack of the gray wolves. 

Thus passed those faraway school days, rude and crude 
in many ways no doubt, limited and circumscribed as com- 
pared with the schools today attended by the children who 
live and thrive on those same broad acres, but for all that, rich 
in very much of good and very much of joy. James A. Gar- 
field's concei^tion of an ideal college was to have President 
Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and himself on the other. 
There were no James A. Garfields and no Mark Hopkinses 
in our district school in those years, but the difference may 
have been not so much in kind as in degree. True it is that 
equipments and appliances, desirable as they are, cannot 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 199 

make a good school unless there be a teacher who can teach, 
and boys and girls ol" healthy body and mind with the earn- 
est desire to learn, and if these latter be present the absence 
of the former cannot preclude the inevitableness of a good 
school. 

The transition from school girl to teacher, even in these 
days when the teacher of less than a score of years is excep- 
tionally young, is speedy. Informer years when teachers 
were fewer than they are now it was no unfamiliar sight to 
see the girl-teacher of fifteen wending her way along country 
roads to and from her — usually first — school. The present 
condition in this, as in some other things, is a decided im- 
provement over the past, for there is nothing harder than 
imparting to others the knowledge which we have not yet 
acquired. As the Chinaman says, "No havee, how canee!" 
It is with the memory of the first school of one of these un- 
ripe and callow school ma'ams that I close this chapter of 
reminiscences. 

The possibilities arising from the conjunction of the 
county examination and the offer of a country school among 
good friends proved too compelling to be withstood and the 
third day following found a trembling but triumphant, short- 
dressed individual installed behind a pine-board desk with 
thirteen freshly starched and polished children ranging m 
age from pinafored to downy mustached days. They were 
arranged around the sides of the not-too-large-for-them room 
behind desks corresponding to the teacher's ia material and 
workmanship. The house was a combination sod and dug- 
out with its doors and windows opening, both literally and 
figuratively, towards Jerusalem. The back wall had grown 
unsteady and a plank was placed against it supported by a 
pole which extended far out into the room. A small black- 
board further adorned this wall. The fioor was as nature 
had left it minus the grass and had been worn by a few large 
and many small feet into depressions and eminences which 
necessitated one to look well to the order of his going. This 
floor afforded us endless delight when the rain ran in beneath 
the door and covered it sufficiently for us to recognize and 
name the chief mountain chains, continents, capes, peninsu- 
las, oceans, rivers and bays of our geographies. I was never 



200 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

in subsequent teaching able to make the study of geography 
at once so popular and practical. Thus we lived day after 
day through that summer near to nature's heart, playing to- 
gether at noon and recesses and not living an over strenuous 
--it now seems to me — life during other hours, but happy 
and unburdened, with no anxious thought for the morrow, 
for those blessed days preceded with us the day of the writ- 
ten examination. 

I can see them all now, those thirteen, as though the 
sod walls, the unpainted benches and the mother- earth floor 
were re-created in reality instead of in the imagination, and I 
know what I have known long since that nothing I can ever 
be or do will seem to me more abundantly worth while than 
did those days while they were yet written in the i)resent 
tense. Of the hundreds of boys and girls who have been my 
pupils and friends in the years which lie between, none are 
more affectionately recalled than are these, the tirst fruits of 
my pedagogue days. I take myself to task because I was 
not able to do much more for each of them but especially for 
the gifted little artist whose marvelous — to me now as to all 
of us then — pencil sketches from life and from that greater 
realm of the imagination, held us spellbound through many 
a showery recess and noon hour. The teacher-friend with 
the seeing eye who could have counselled with her parents 
and helped to plan her future — in all likelihood that of a 
master portrait or animal painter — was denied her and there- 
in lies a great loss to the world — perhaps the tragedy of a 
life. What a truly awful thought, the possibility of imposing 
limitations upon our fellowmen because of our own limitations, 
the power which each one has to thwart to so great an ex- 
tent the plan of the Creator, not only in his own life but in 
the life of another. How could we endure this responsibility 
were it not for the redeeming fact that the ability to limit 
and thwart but argues the ability to enlarge, to enrich, to 
assist, to encourage, to develop? And is not the ability to 
be helpful after all what makes life so abundantly worth 
the living? 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 201 

INDIAN SCARES 
MRS. SARAH F, ANDERSON 



At the time of the great Indian scare of 1H64, my fath- 
er's family was one of the families which the Nebraska City 
people had heard w^ere killed. It had been rumored through- 
out the little settlement that there were bands of hostile 
Indians api^roaching, and that they were committing great 
depredations as they went. 

On Sunday morning my uncle and Thomas Shields 
started down the river on a scouting expedition. After an 
all-day search, just at nightfall they came suddenly upon an 
Indian camp. The men thought their time had come, but 
the red-skins were equally scared. There was no chance to 
back out, and they resolved to know whether the Indians 
were friendly or hostile. As they bravely approached the 
camp, the Indians began to halloo, "Heap good Omaha." 
The men then concluded to camp over night with them, and 
they partook of a square Indian supper. The next morning 
they went home satisfied that there w^ere no hostiles in the 
country. 

A day or two after this my father (Mr. Wm. Imlay) and 
his brothers were on upper Plum creek haying, when Grand- 
father Imlay became frightened and hastened to our house 
and said the Indians were coming upon the settlement. He 
then hastened home to protect his family. About 3 p. m. 
we saw a drove of them approaching. They were about 
where the B. & M. depot now stands. We were living about 
eighty rods above the present iron bridge. My mother, 
thinking to escape them, locked the cabin door, and took all 
the children across the creek to the spring where she kept 
the milk. To kill time she commenced churning. Very 
soon four Indians (great, big, ugly creatures) came ridhig 
up to the spring, and told mother that she was wanted over 
at the house. She said, "No, I can't go; I am at work. " 
But they insisted in such a menacing manner that she felt 
obliged to yield and go. They said, "Come, come," in a most 
determined manner. The children all clinging to her. she 
started, and those great sneaking braves guarded her by 



202 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

one riding on each side, one before, and one behind. Poor 
mother and we four children had a sHm show to escape. 
They watched our every movement, step by step. When 
we reached the cabin, there sat sixteen burley Indians in a 
circle around the door. When we came up, they all arose 
and saluted mother, then sat down again. They had a young 
Indian interpreter. As they thought they had the family 
all thoroughly frightened, the young Indian began in good 
shape to tell just what they wanted. They would like to 
have two cows, two sacks of flour and some meat. Mother 
saw that she must guard the provisions with desperation, as 
they had cost such great effort, having hauled our provisions 
from the Missouri river. The Indians said, "the Sioux are 
coming and will take all anyway, and we want some." "No," 
said mother, "we will take our cattle and provisions and go 
to Plattsmouth." "But," said the Indian, "they will be here 
tonight and you can't get away." Mother at this point be- 
gan to be as much angry as frightened. "I will not give 
you anything. You are lying to me. If the Sioux were so 
close you would all be running yourselv^es." At this point 
another bra\'e, who had been pacing the yard, seeing mother 
grow so warm, picked up our axe and marched straight 
up to her and threw it down at her feet. She picked it up 
and stood it beside her. Mother said afterward, that her 
every hair stood on end, but knowing that Indians respect 
bravery, she resolved to show no cowardice. We could all 
see that the whole river bend was swarming with Indians. 
Mother said with emphasis, "I now want you to take your 
Indians and begone at (mce." Then they said, "You are a 
brave squaw," and the old chief motioned to his braves and 
they all marched off to camp. The next day our family all 
went over to Plum creek and remained until things became 
settled. 

The following winter father was at Omaha attending the 
legislature; and I am sure that over a thousand Indians 
liassed our place during the winter. It required pluck to 
withstand the thievish beggars. Sometimes they would 
sneak up and peep in at the window. Then others would beg 
for hours to get into the house. 

A great amount of snow had fallen, and shortly after 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 203 

father's return home, a heavy winter rain inundated all the 
bottom lands. We all came pretty near being drowned, but 
succeeded in crawling out of the cabin at the rear window at 
midnight, and our only refuge was a haystack, where we re- 
mained several days entirely surrounded by water, with no 
possible means of escape. Mr. Cox made several attempts 
to rescue us. First he tried to cross the river in a molasses 
pan, and narrowly escaped being drowned, as the wind was 
high and the stream filled with floating ice. The next day 
he made a raft and tried to cross, but the current was so 
rapid he could not manage it. It drifted against a tree 
where the water was ten feet deep, and the jar threw him off 
his balance, and the upper edge of the raft sank so that the 
rapid current caught it and turned the raft on its edge up 
against the tree. Mr. Cox caught hold of a limb of the tree 
and saved himself from drowning. A desperate struggle en- 
sued but he finally kicked and stamped until he got the raft 
on top of the water again, but it was wrong side up. We 
then gave up all hopes of getting help until the water sub- 
sided. The fourth day tall trees were chopped by father on 
one side and Mr. Cox on the other, and their branches inter- 
locked, and w^e made our escape to his friendly cabin, where 
we found a kindly greeting, rest, food, and fire. 



The author of the above sketch was born in Wabash 
county, Indiana, August 20, 1854. In 1856 her father moved 
to Harrison county, Iowa, and in 1858 to Cass county, Neb- 
raska, and in the spring of 1868 to the Salt Basin, and to 
his present home in April, 1864. And there on the frontier 
Miss Sarah grew to womanhood. She taught two terms of 
school in 1872 in her home district. At nineteen she was 
married to Allen S. Anderson, one of the soldier boys that 
made Seward county his home after the war. Mr. Anderson 
enlisted in company D, 205th Penn. volunteers, and served 
during the war. To Mr. and Mrs. Anderson have been born 
four children, all girls, viz., Jessie, Nellie, AdieM., and 
Mary J. The. family now" have a beautiful home, only about 
a mile from the scenes of her childhood which she has so 
ably depicted. Mrs. Anderson died in the spring of 1891. 



204 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

RECOLLECTIONS OF FRONTIER LIFE IN BOYHOOD 



ADDISON E. SHELDON 



My recollections of early Seward county life do not go 
back as far as the author's. They begin with one wind-blown 
day, September, 1869, when I, a small urchin from Minneso- 
ta, crossed the Seward county line near Pleasant Dale on 
my way with my mother and step father, (R. J. McCall) to 
the new home on the southeast quarter of section 18, town 
9, range '2, east, — about three miles southeast of the present 
Beaver Crossing. Looked back upon now, through all the 
intervening years, it seems to me there never was an au- 
tumn more supremely. joyous, a prairie more entrancing, a 
woodland belt more alluring, a life more captivating than 
that which welcomed the new boy to the frontier in the 
beautiful West Blue Valley. The upland "divides" as I re- 
member them were entirely destitute of settlement, and even 
along the streams, stretches of two, three, and live miles 
lay between nearest neighbors. 

What has become of the Nebraska wind of those days? 
I have sought it since far and wide in the sand hill and on 
the table lands of western Nebraska, but found it not. That 
wind which blew ceaselessly, month after month, never 
pausing but to pucker its lips for a stronger blast! Where 
are the seas of rosin- weed, with their yellow summer para- 
sols, which covered the prairie in those days'? I have sought 
them too, and along gravelly ridges or some old ditch yet 
flower a few degenerate descendants of the old time host. 

Mention of merely a few incidents seeming to hold the 
drama and poetry of frontier life at that time: "Pittsburg, 
the city of vision, at the junction of Walnut creek with the 
West Blue, inhabited by a population of "20,000 people, with 
a glass factory, a paper factory, a brick factory, oil wells, 
a. peat factory, woolen mills, junction of three railway lines, 
metropolis of the Blue Valley." All this and so much more 
that I dare not attempt to picture it: a real existence in the 
brain of Christopher Lezenby in the years of 1871-72. What 
unwritten dramas sleep almost forgotten in the memories of 
early settlers! When Mr. Lezenby began to build his me- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 205 

tropolis with the assistance of Attorney Boyd of Lincoln and 
a few other disinterested speculators, he was the possessor 
of several hundred acres of land, some hundreds of cattle, 
and other hundreds of hog^s, and a fair unmarried dauo^hter. 
What pathetic memories of the old man, month after month, 
surveying off his beautiful farm into city lots for the new 
metropolis, while his cattle disappeared from the prairies 
and his swine from the oak thickets along t-he Walnut; with 
sublime and childish simplicity repeating day after day the 
confession of his faith that "next week" work would begin; 
"next week" the foundation for the factories would be laid; 
"next week" the railway surveyors would set the grade 
stakes. And this real rural tragedy lasted through several 
years ending in the loss of all his property, the marriage of 
his daughter to Irwin Stall, and the wandering forth of the 
old man until he died of a broken heart in California. 

One monument yet remains to mark the site and per- 
petuate the memory of Pittsburg, a flowmg well, found I 
think at the depth of twenty-eight feet in the year 1874 and 
continuously flowing since that. Strange that no one was 
wise enough to take the hint and that it was twenty years 
later before the second flowing well was struck at Beaver 
Crossing, leading to the systematic search for them which 
dotted the entire valley with their fountains. 

There were no high water bridges across the West Blue 
in those early days. I remember acting as mail carrier 
for a number of families on the south bank of the Blue dur- 
ing the high waters of two or three summers, bringing the 
mail from the city of Pittsburg postoflice on the north bank. 
A torn shirt and a pair of short-legged blue overalls — my 
entire w^ardrobe of those days — were twisted into a turban 
about my head, and plunging into the raging flood of the 
Blue which covered all the lower bottoms, five minutes vig- 
orous swimming carried me through the froth and foam and 
drift wood to the other side where I once more resumed my 
society clothes and, after securing the mail, upon my return 
to the river bank, tied it tightly in the turban and crossed 
the river as before. 

I remember my first lessons in political economy, the 
fierce fight between the northern and the southern parts 



206 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

of the county upon the question of voting bonds to the Mid- 
land Pacific railway duiMng the years 1871-72. It was a sec- 
tional fight in fact, but in theory and in debate it was a con- 
test over some first principles of government. The question 
of the people versus the corporation, since grown to such 
great proportions, was then first discussed to my childish 
ears. One incident of that contest is forever photographed 
on my brain — a crowd of one hundred farmers and village 
loungers in the shadow of T. H. Tisdale's old store. A yel- 
low skinned emaciated lawyer from Lincoln who looked, to 
my boyish vision, like a Chinese chieftain from Manchuria, 
speaking with fluent imaginative words in favor of the bene- 
fits the people of Seward county might secure by voting 
the bonds. This w^as H. W. Sommerlad, registrar of Lincoln 
land office; a short Saxon opponent. Rev. W. G. Keen of 
Walnut creek, was picked from the crowd by general ac- 
clamation to reply to the Lincoln lawyer. The impression 
of his fiery words denouncing the aggressions of capital and 
appealing to the memories of the Civil war and the Revolu- 
tionary fathers to arouse the people's independence is with 
me yet. 

Next in the economic vista is the old Brisbin sod school 
house east of Walnut creek where a grange was organized. 

Here a lyceum was held through several winters in which 
the debates were strongly tinctured with the rising anti- 
monopoly sentiment of those hard times. George Michael 
and Charley Hunter, leaders of the boyish dare-deviltry of 
those days, were chosen as judges upon the debates in or- 
der to insure their good behavior, and they gravely decided 
for the negative or affirmative many deep discussions of 
doubtful themes. 

Beaver Crossing in the early days was remarkable for 
the great number of boys in its surrounding population, and 
I have observed in these later years when visiting there, that 
the custom of having boy babies in the family does not appear 
to have entirely gone out of fashion. That great swarm of 
restless boy population which gathered, sometimes two hun- 
dred strong, Saturday afternoons on the Common! What 
"sleights of art and feats of strength" went round! What 
struggles of natural selection to secure a place upon the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 207 

"First Nine" of the base ball team. For years Beaver 
Crossing had the best base ball club in three or four counties 
and some of her players won high laurels on distant dia- 
monds. 

One custom which obtained in those frontier days seems 
to have been peculiar to the time, for I have not found it 
since in other frontier communities. It was the custom of 
"calling off" the mail upon its a,rrival at the post office. The 
postmaster, old Tom Tisdale — a genuine facsimile of Petro- 
leum V. Nasby — would dump the sacks of mail, brought 
overland on a buckboard, into a capacious box upon the 
counter of his store, then pick up piece by piece, and read 
the inscriptions thereon in a sonorous voice to the crowd, 
sometimes consisting of one or two hundred people. Each 
claimant would cry out "here" when his name was called. 
Sometimes two-thirds of the mail was distributed in this 
way, saving a large amount of manual labor in pigeon-holing 
the same. Nasby had a happy and caustic freedom in com- 
menting upon the mail during the performance, not always 
contemplated I believe, by the United States postal regula- 
tions. A woman's handwriting upon a letter addressed to a 
young man was almost certain to receive some public notice 
from his sharp tongue to the great enjoyment of the crowd 
and sometimes the visible annoyance of the young man. At 
one time he deliberately turned over a postal card written by 
a well known young w^oman of Beaver Crossing wiio was 
away at school, and on observing that the message was 
written both horizontally and across, commented, "From 
the holy mother, in Dutch." If I should ever meet on the 
mystic other shore, which poets and philosophers have tried 
to picture for us, old Tom Tisdale, I would expect to see him 
with his spectacles pushed back from his nose, "calling off" 
the mail to the assembled spirits, the wiiile entertaining 
them with pungent personal epigrams. 

One startling picture rises from the past, framed as 
Browning writes it, "in a sheet of llame," — the picture of 
the great prairie fire of October, 1871, which swept Seward 
county from south to north leaving hardly a quarter section 
of continuous unburnt sod. A heavy wind, increasing to a 
hurricane, drove this fire down the West Blue Valley. It 



208 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

jumped the Blue river in a dozen places as easily as a jack 
rabbit jumps a road. It left a great broad trail of cindered 
hay stacks and smoking stables and houses. A neighbor of 
ours who was burned out remarked that he had ' 'been through 
Hell in one night," and had "no fear of the Devil hereafter. " 

At the other end of the scale of temperature are recollec- 
tions of the "Great Storm" of April 13, 14, 15, 1873. There 
burst from a June atmosphere the worst blizzard in the his- 
tory of the state. For three days it blew thick, freezing 
sleet, changing to snow so close and dense and dark that a 
man in a wagon vainly looked for the horses hitched to it 
through the storm. Men who were away from home lost 
their lives all over the state. Stock was frozen to death 
In sodhouses, dug-outs and log cabins settlers huddled close 
about the hearth, burning enormous baskets of ten-cent corn 
to keep from freezing. 

In these later years of life, Pate has called me to make 
minute study of many historical periods and places. Yet 
my heart always returns to review the early scenes of settle- 
ment and civilization in Seward county with a peculiar thrill 
of personal emotion and special joy in the risen and rising 
fortunes of those who there built the foundations of a great 
commonwealth. No land can be dearer than the land of 
one's childhood and none can ever draw my thoughts further 
over plain or ocean than the happy valley upon West Blue 
whose waters spring spontaneously from beneath the soil to 
water her fortunate acres. 



"G" PRECINT SETTLEMENT 



JAMES A, BROWN, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 

Los Angeles, Cal., Dec. 12. 



W. W. Cox: 



Dear Sir — Yours of Dec. 5th came to hand a few days 
ago. When I declined to write you a historical letter upon 
the early history of Seward county, I then hoped that you 
would not further insist upon my writing, as at present I 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 209 

have but little inclination in that way. But as you still in- 
sist that I must do it, I will attempt to record some of my 
first experiences connected with my making a home in Sew- 
ard county. In February, 1866, as I was on my way from 
Leavenworth, Kan., to Denver, Colo., and while waiting at 
Fort Kearney for teams enough to get together to make a 
train large enough to defend ourselves from the Indians, 
who were very bad at that time, I became acquainted with 
Ramsey Grant, who lived on the south side of the Platte, 
opposite Columbus, and who w^as afterwards killed by the 
Indians. He described to me in glowing terms the country, 
to such an extent that I promised to visit him on my return 
from Denver, and take a look at his country. In the month 
of April, 1866, I came dowm and spent a few days with him, 
and spent the time in looking at the country. While there I 
heard that a settlement had been started on the Blue River 
to the south of them, and that there was considerable timber 
there, w^hich was a main consideration, as the soil was good 
everywdiere in the country. I resolved to go and see it, and 
when I saw^ it considered it good, and resolved to remain and 
help develop it. 

I found in north half of the county the following families, 
at the time of my visit: David Imlay, Sr. , and two unmarried 
sons and daughter, and being a bachelor, I "corralled" the 
daughter, and whether it was for my everlasting happiness 
or eternal misery is none of your business;* Wm Imlay, W. 
W. Cox, R. T. Gale, E. L. Clark, Sr. , Thomas Dunaway and 
mother, Richard Sampson, Lewis Moffitt, J. N. Roberts, 
Thomas Skillman, John Durland, and F. E. Pitt. A number 
of other families came in that spring, among whom were the 
Hagemans, E. L. Ellis, John Roberts, Sr., J. C. Samson; 
and in the fall a few more families arrived — Roger Cooper, 
Wm. Cooper, E. B. Shafer, and Geo. W. Rogers. There 
were also a f ew^ people at the Oak Grove, among whom were 
J. D. Main, Mr. John A. Scott, and a few others, I think, 
but am not positive about it, as I did not became acquainted 
over there the first year. After that year it would be dif- 
ficult to keep track of all that came. 



*The auther happens to know that Mr. Brown made no mistake in 
choice of a wife. 



210 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

In April, 1867, the river was higher than I ever saw it 
afterwards, caused by the heavy snows of the previous win- 
ter, which was the coldest winter that I ever saw there or 
anywhere else. In fact it was terrible, and as the people had 
poor houses, I was glad there were no more of them at the 
time. In 1867 there was a good crop of wheat and some 
corn and vegetables, but the grasshoppers got most of the 
corn. With the experience of the winter before, and with 
the time to prepare for it, the pepole were in better condition 
for the next winter, which being a mild one in comparison 
with the preceding one, but little suffering was experienced. 

In the summer of 1s6h the first buildings were erected on 
the town site of Seward. I think there were five that year, 
and on the Fourth of July a few of the people congregated on 
the public square and elevated a pole that was used as a flag 
staff for a number of years. Yearly additions were made to 
the town by buildings and people, till at present it has be- 
come as tine an inland town as can be found in Nebraska, 
Lincoln excepted. As I notice that you have described the 
county seat t^^oubles, I will not mention them. 

In August, 1869, Mr. S. G. Mathews and T. L. Norval 
first made a visit to Seward. At that time "Op.," now the 
honorable judge of the sixth judical district of Nebraska, 
looked like a school boy just out of school, but since that 
time he has acquired enormous proportions. The Norval 
Bros, were among the first attorneys who located in Seward, 
though P. M. Elsworbh was there about a year before, but 
we had but little use for lawyers, as it took all we could make 
to feed ourselves, and as to clothing, we will not mention the 
"old rags" that we covered our nakedness with, for we were 
truly what the people of Colorado called the Nebraskans 
when meeting them on the plains, "ragged Nebraskans." In 
fact the name was applicable to us for a number of years 
after I went there, and I do not think I should feel at home 
in Nebraska now unless I could be allowed to let my rags 
float in the breezes as of yore. 

I omitted to chronicle the advent of H. L. Boyes and 
family in the fall of 1867, who started a saw-mill, I think in 
the following summer, which was a great convenience to the 
people in getting lumber to make themselves and stock more 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 211 

comfortable. Said saw-mill afterwards gave place to a 
flouring mill, which enabled the people to feed themselves 
better. All the people owe Father Boyes a debt of gratitude 
for first providing them with means to erect houses and then 
with bread, and may he and his estimable lady long live to 
sit upon their porch and listen to the whir of the old mill 
wheel, and enjoy the society of their hosts of friends.* While 
the people had grasshoppers to contend with, Mr. Boyes 
had the Blue river to watch during freshets. His first grist- 
mill was so ruined as to be comparatively worthless^ but the 
old man had the "sand" in his crop, and went to work with 
energy and rebuilt the structure, which he has again re- 
placed with the present splendid structure to take the place 
of the old saw-mill. In the freshets above mentioned the 
people were frequently put to straits by the bridges on the 
streams washing out^ when they would often have to travel 
many miles to cross Lhe river, or swim it. A little cotton- 
wood skiff that I made in the spring of 1M67 aided a great 
many people to cross the river, which tney otherwise could 
not have done. 

Although we were all poor, and at times had hard work 
to make ourselves comfortable, yet I think we enjoyed our- 
selves as well as Claudius Jones does today with his fine 
houses and barns and premium Short-horns and untold treas- 
ures. This teaches us that wealth is not indespensable to 
happiness. 

In the year 187^ the whole country west of the Missouri 
river suffered severely with drouth, which nearly annihilated 
the corn and vegetable crop, but the grasshoppers came in 
August and took what the drouth had not already destroyed, 
and unjustly the loss of the whole crop was charged to them. 

Since 1876 the grasshoppers have not visited the state, 
and from that time Nebraska can date the dawning of her 
prosperity. With her fine soil, even if the climate is at 
times severe, it must soon rank as an agricultural state sec- 
ond to none. But as Hon. Geo. Geddes remarked some years 
ago, in a communication to the New York Tribune: "Any 
country that will produce grass will sustain a population," 
and Nebraska has become a better grass producing country, 
*The old people have gone to rest. 



212 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

especiallj^ for the tame grasses, than the most sanguine 
dared hope for fifteen years ago. With surety of producing 
cheap food for stock, Nebraska must ever take rank among 
the first as a stock producing state, and the people of all 
stock countries may at least become independent. 

I have written more than I first intended. I mean more 
words, but I fear that when you come to use the critic's eye 
of a historian you will find but little that you can use in your 
book. I hope you will thus treat it, for this is not intended 
for publication without such treatment, as I hardly know 
what to write, my not knowing what you have written, but 
if I have even furnislied you with some ideas and experi- 
ences I shall be pleased. 

I hope some day to visit Nebraska again, as "with all 
her faults I love her still," even if I do like the winters of 
Southern California better. With my best wishes for the 
success of your efforts, and for the future of that fair land 
and her prosperity, 

I am yours, 

James A. Brown. 



SNAKES IN THE KITCHEN 



MRS. MALINDA FRINK 

Mr. W. W. Cox, 

Dear Sir — When we came to the county there were quite 
a goodly number of settlers. There were a few small frame 
houses. We came in lisTT and settled on an eighty acre farm 
for which we made rather a curious trade of a neighbor in 
Clark county, Iowa. It was the Tom Starkey homestead 
that had fallen into his hands. We were to raise him eighty 
acres of wheat within five years and upon completion of our 
contract took a deed of the eighty acres. 

When w^e arrived here, in our prairie schooners, the 
place looked desolate enough being all grown up with weeds 
and grass. There were only a few acres broken and there 
was no house. The claim shanty had been confiscated and 
moved away. The well was boarded up to keep the rabbits 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 213 

out. We were poor as church mice. We brought all our 
belongings in two wagons; one of them belonged to a brother- 
in-law that came along to see the country. Our nearest 
neighbors were coyotes and they made nighis hideous with 
their bowlings; but in the spring mornings our hearts were 
gladdened by the booming of the prairie chickens. Snakes 
were plentiful and were so friendly as to make us frequent 
visits in the soddie. They would crawl inio the walls and 
would remain until we disputed their claim to a residence 
with us. Once when we returned from Seward, our trading 
place, a large bull snake took possession and was snugly es- 
consed under the cupboard. The children left at home were 
scared out of their wits and dare not venture in the house 
until our arrival at home. It had crawled out of sight and 
could not be found until I went to put the milk down cellar 
when I found the horrible thing curled up on the cellar steps. 
It was about dark and I had called for a light as I was afraid 
of snakes, otherwise there would have been some spilled 
milk. 

We had some terrific rain storms and once our cellar 
filled up with water. Everything that would float was swim- 
ming and things that could not swim were resting quietly 
under water. We had to carry the water out with buckets. 



OUR OLD DOG MIKE STOLE THE MEAT 

H, A. BRISBIN 



MiLFORD, Nebr., June 6, 1905. 
W. W. Cox, 

Seward, Nebr. 

Your letter reminding me of promising to write up the 
greaser incident received. 

Will fulfill that promise now. 

The present generation living in Seward county, can 
hardly realize that thirty odd years ago the question of bread 
and butter was a serious problem to be solved. 

Ninth tenths of the early settlers were almost penniless 
upon their arrival here. Yq^t humble servant had put 50 



214 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

cents. Thousands of others were equally as poor. Today 
every farm carries from 20 to 100 heads of hogs. Pork in 
its various forms is on every table once a day at least, but a 
generation ago it was a luxury. I well remember my first 
investment in pork in '70. Mrs. Brisbin and Mrs. Biggs had 
become joint owners of one or two pounds of pork. The 
pork was used to grease bread pans and pan-cake griddles, 
and was used back and forth as occasion demanded. 

It was safely guarded from all possible harm. "But the 
best laid plans etc. " applied to this piece of pork. 

A very large dog of the hound and mastiff breed had 
followed me from Iowa. In color was a dark brindle, and 
in size would tip the beam at 150 pounds or more, owing to 
the condition he was in. He responded to the name of Mike. 
He was noted for two things, size and digestive ability. The 
former quality was a terror to strangers and the latter to 
his owners. With head erect, eyes glistening, tail wagging, 
and drools running, he would watch that pork as my wife 
greased the bread pans. 

The sod house door (made of slabs, hung with leather 
hinges, and fastened with wooden latch) in pleasant weather 
was always open, and the doorway was Mike's favorite place 
of resort. 

Watching one day as usual my wife preparing the 
dough for the oven greasing the pans with that commercial 
piece of pork, Mike saw the chance of his life. As Mrs. 
Brisbin laid the pork on the table and carried the pans of 
dough to the oven. Mike seized it, and one gulp and my 
investment in pork was lost. 

A terrible commotion was raised. I was called to the 
house and Mike's sin was related, and the dark ominous fut- 
ure was portrayed, but there was no help for it. We were 
short on pork and long on dog. The event was told Mrs. 
Biggs and the hang tail expression of Mike for a week after- 
wards gave evidence that he was the recipient of unusual 
attention. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 215 

VILLAGE OF BEE 



E. H. NOXON 



The village of Bee, lying seven miles north and two 
miles east of Seward on the Northwestern railroad on broad 
and commanding ground, was purchased by the Pioneer 
Townsite Company and platted in the spring of 1887. 

A postoffice was established with Miss Minnie Dunigan, 
postmistress. The first passenger train carrying mail ar- 
rived Sep. 20, 1887. The first grain elevator was built in 
the summer of 1887 by the late Luke Agur. Other buildings 
followed quickly. John Low built a store building and a 
hotel; M. Dunigan, a store building; Allen Price Lesse, the 
first store to open for buiness in 1887. Two churches, the 
United Brethren and the Christian were soon built, and res- 
idences sprang up in all parts of the little city. January 
20, 1902, the village was incorporated with A. J. Gumbel, 
O. C. Bedford, H. Moler, A. Terwillinger, and E. O. Drake, 
trustees, with A. J. Gumbel, chairman, and G. L. Bedford, 
clerk. Bee has a fine tw^o story high school building costing 
$2500, and a Modern Woodman camp of over one hundred 
members owning their own hall. The postmaster, E. H. 
Noxon, appointed June 15, 1889 under President Harrison's 
administration, although seventy-four years old, still hands 
out mail. 



UGLY BACHELOR JUMPED OUR CLAIM 



MR, AND MRS. M, S, McCALISTER 



My father, Ira McCJalister, and family landed in "L" 
precinct, three and one-half miles south of Utica, in Decem- 
ber, 1872. He had visited the locality at a previous date 
and filed his claim. His time for settlement was about up, 
and upon arrival with the family he found an ugly bachelor 
waiting to jump his claim. The neighbors rallied to father's 
assistance, and they chopped and dug iu the frozen ground 
and made a dug-out about 8x10 ft., perhaps 10x12 ft. ; just 



216 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

room for wife and two children to crawl into, and when 
the bed, stove and table were placed they were pretty thick. 
Father and a brother-in-law spent the night tliere just in 
time to save the claim. John E. Fouse sold father a ridge 
pole for two dollars, and with some small poles, hay, and 
shingles made of dirt, served for a roof. A crude door in 
the south with one window giving light! Precious light. 

These small quarters served the family as a home dur- 
ing the winter and next summer, and small as the home was 
they had to make room for me when I appeared on the scene 
the following July. I was rather small but took up lots of 
room in that dug-out. Father hired a small patch of ground 
broken as a garden patch, and he spent the summer at car- 
penter work. 

When I was old enough [ started to school in a little 
soddie on the site of the McNiel school house. The lit- 
tle old soddie had two small windows and a rough door. 
Pegs were driven into the walls and rough plank placed on 
them for seats. Later a small frame schoolhouse was built, 
and then a great prairie lire came sweeping by and burned 
it up; then we had to take another soddie. This was re- 
placed in later years by the present commodious schoolhouse. 

I was a farmer boy at w^ork by the month when the bu- 
gle notes of 1H98 called to arms. I hurried to Lincoln and 
enlisted in Troop K, 3rd U. S. Volunteer Cavalry, known as 
Grigsby's Rough Riders. The third day we were ordered to 
Chickamagua Park, Georgia. We arrived in camp May 25, 
and there met the remainder of our regiment who were 
mostly from the Black Hills. We were drilling every day 
and expecting orders at any time to sail for Porto Rico. 
There were sixty thousand in camp and a jolly crew we were, 
but in the heat of July the typhoid fever met us; we would 
rather have met all the soldiers of Spain than this enemy. 
August 6, Willis M. Powell of Beaver Ci'ossing proved the 
tirst victim of our company; he died at the camp hospital. 
We laid him to rest in the national cemetery at Chatanooga. 
Our next victim was Claud D. McNichols of Seward. He 
died Aug. 20, 1898, in the eamp hospital and was also laid to 
rest in the Chatanooga cemetery. First Sergeant Wm D. 
Smith of Milford returned home to die of fever contracted in 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 217 

Camp Thomas. I was taken sick August 1, and remained in 
the hospital until discharged, October 15, 1898. 

I returned to the old home and found my girl that I had* 
left behind me awaiting my coming. We waited a while 
however, when Miss Alta Prink, also a native of Seward 
county and I concluded a bargain. We are making our home 
in good old '"L" precinct, to each of us the dearest spot of 
all the earth. 



DEMOCRATIC PAPERS IN SEWARD COUNTY 
W, H. SMITH 



The first democratic paper to be established in Seward 
was in 1876, when Samuel J. Tilden was the idol of the par- 
ty and the candidate for president. Wm. Haw, a Baptist 
minister and Missouri democrat, was the editor. After a 
two years' struggle, however, the paper was suspended, and 
from 1878 until 1884 the county seat was without a demo- 
cratic paper. But in the latter year H. E. McClellan came 
on from Wisconsin and started the Seward County Democrat, 
which he conducted until 1888, when the plant was sold to 
M. Meehan, who came to Seward when the Northwestern 
Ry. was built into the town the year before, he being the 
time-keeper. Mr. Meehan ran the paper until 1891 when 
he changed the name to the People's Rights, and espoused 
the doctrines of the people's independent party. But the 
democrats were not long without a paper, for P. C. Carpen- 
ter, who had been in the printing business at Beaver Cross- 
ing, was induced, the same year, to locate in Seward and 
start an organ for the democracy. About the same time 
Duncan M. Smith, a Seward boy, started the Seward County 
Independent, which was also run as a people's independent 
paper. In 1882, however, he sold his business to Mr. Mee- 
han, who consolidated it with his People Rights, and the 
following year the latter sold his plant to the Independent 
Publishing Co. , which was composed of prominent populists 
of the county, among the heaviest stockholders being Geo. 
W. Fuller, D. D. Remington, C. M. Gordon, C. J. Wright 



218 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

and W. A. Brokaw. While this company owned the plant it 
was leased to various parties. 

Mr. Carpenter continued to conduct the Democrat which 
he had established, until 1H96, getting out his last edition 
just before the election that year. The following February 
the writer came to Seward from Iowa, purchased the plant 
and resurrected the paper, the first issue appearing on 
March 11th, 1897 — eight and one-half years ago. The fol- 
lowing June the Independent Publishing Co.'s plant was also 
purchased by the w^riter, and the two papers consolidated 
under the name of the Seward Independent-Democrat. 

Of the men whose names are mentioned as publishers 
in the foregoing Mr. Haw, who was quite old wiien he came 
to Seward, has been dead for a number of years. Mr. Mc- 
Clellan is a resident of Denver, Mr. Meehan a resident of 
Concord, N. H., where he is the editor of the Patriot, and 
Mr. Carpenter resides at Shawnee, Okla. Duncan M. Smith, 
the founder of the first Independent, is employed as a writer 
for the editorial page of the Chicago Daily News. 



ORCHARDS AND TREE PLANTING 



ELISHA KINNEY 

The first bearing orchard in this vicinity was on Mr. 
Jackson's farm on West Blue, Saline county. Joseph Lam- 
son, Sec. 28-9-4; J. W. Lowrie, 31-9-4; A. Burlingame, 34-9-4; 
A. H. Vance, 19-9-4; P. J. Hooker and myself, 29-9-4; W. C. 
Hooker and L. Chaddock, 18-9-4; Henry Wortendyke, Chas. 
A. Smith and others, 12-9 3; John Hammel, James Johnson, 
Henry Kemper, Wm. Stanton, Dan Wheeler and a few others 
in Saline county each planted fruit and forest trees. A few 
cotton-wood trees are 18 inches in diameter and 40 or 50 feet 
high. Many of the groves were cut down. There is now 
only about 5 per cent of the cotton-wood left. Ash, box-elder, 
soft-maple, walnut and bur-oak have stood the changes — 
drouth etc — better. Honey locust stands the climate, 
but don't plant it as it is a spreader and cannot be killed 
without great labor. The oldest evergreen here is on Sec. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 219 

31-9-4 planted by J. W. Lowrie about 1871. In 1873 I planted 
a few apple trees; they are all dead now but we are all having 
good success with trees of all kinds that are suitable to the 
climate, since the 1880 drouth did not kill a very great per 
cent of fruit trees but was hard on cotton-wood, soft maple 
and willow. Mr. W. W. Cox will tell of Camden school dis- 
trict No. 1 and first post office in the county. He will not 
tell about school distrct No 1, Saline county (Star school 
house) as that is in Saline county. 

There are many small orchards now in this vicinity, 
apple, peach, plum, cherry and a few pear. Small fruits, 
gooseberry, raspberry, strawberry, etc., do well here. But 
eternal vigilance is the price of success in orcharding and 
forestry as well as in many other kinds of business. The 
early settlers had but little time to devote to tree planting 
whilst opening their farms. Many of the orchard and small 
fruit trees are from Crete nurseries. One orchard of 112 
trees had 108 in full bearing a few years ago (trees furnished 
by Crete nurseries). 



FRUIT 



S. J, WELCH 



We came to Nebraska in Aug. 1878 and settled on the 
West Blue about two and a half miles south west of Camden. 
In the spring of '79 we broke the prairie where we intended 
to build, and after plowing the ground a foot deep in the 
spring of '80 we set about 3000 box-elder and maple trees, 
and although the season was rather dry we lost less than 
half a dozen of the trees. I think that it was the same year 
that we planted about 30 apple trees and a few years later 
some cherry trees. The forest trees suffered considerable 
during the drought years in the '90s and some of the orchard 
trees died; but some of the apple trees and most of the cherry 
trees have been good bearers. I set out an orchard of 50 
apple trees in '88 that are mostly all living and bearing nicely 
now; besides that I have set out later some cherries, mul- 
berries and peaches that have done nicely and some plums 



220 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

that have not done so well. Pears came into bearing last 
year producing nice fruit, and grapes are doing fairly well. 

Among the earlier planters in this vicinity in Seward 
county were: Mr. J. Samson who had quite a grove, orchard 
and vineyard when we came here. His orchard did well and 
his vineyard produced an abundance of nice grapes. Mr. 
Aug. Goldhammer also had a large grove and orchard in 
good growing order wdien we came here. Mr. Goldhammer 
has been very successful with his orchard, he has kept his 
trees well pruned paying particular attention to keeping the 
crowns well open. 

Other orchards that were growing in Seward county 
when we came here were: Mr. Wortendykes four miles 
north of here, most of the trees bearing yet. Mr. C. Smith's, 
east of Milford one mile, a fine grove and orchard. Mr. 
Stutzman's, two miles west of Milford. Just across the line 
on the West Blue in Salme county were the orchards of Gen. 
V. Vifquain, Mr. James Johnson, John Jacobson and Oscar 
Jacobson . 

It seemed at that time it was harder to keep an orchard 
growing in the bottom than on upland, as a number of the 
orchards in the bottom had to be replanted several times 
before a fair stand was obtained and the trees are dying off 
sooner than those on the upland. I think some of the nicest 
orchards in this county are west and north west of Milford 
ranging from fifty to several hundred trees but as I am not 
much acquainted there I can give the names of only a few, 
viz: J. W. T. Miller, J. Burkey, Joe Stauffer, Jacob Muir, 
orchard and vineyard. I think you are correct as to Camden 
being the earlier settled country. 



MY SUCCESS WITH FRUIT 



J. B, COURTRIGHT 



The county is yet in its infancy so far as fruits are con- 
cerned, but it can be readily seen that it compares favorably 
with other counties of the state. We have a good climate, 
our wijiters aj-e not so cold as many of the older states of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 221 

our latitude, and the fruits already raised are of better flavor 
and more free from specks than in Illinois, Iowa or many of 
the more eastern states. It is true that many of our present 
varieties are not as hardy here as in the eastern states, How- 
ever, they had many failures there until they learned what 
trees were adapted to their climate, and we must learn 
by their experience, and not plant such as have been proven 
to be worthless. Hardy trees of apple or plum will do well 
here if the proper varieties are selected and properly cared 
for. I have seen as fine apples raised here as I ever saw 
anywhere. We cannot grow an orchard in one or two years; 
it takes time and watchful care, but when grown, there is no- 
thing that an enterprising man feels more pride in than 
showing his orchard to his friends. Then, what is more de- 
licious than a finely flavored apple, or a nice bunch of grapes, 
or a fine peach. 

We think that he who plants and prunes an orchard is a 
true benefactor, and no citizen of Seward county can do a 
more praiseworthy act than by planting an orchard and doing 
his part in making Seward the best fruit county of our noble 
state. If we only do our duty we will soon have plenty of 
both large and small fruits. The following varieties we have 
found to be hardy and prolific: For summer apples — Red 
Astrachan, Duchess of Oldenburg, Early Penuock, Early 
Harvest. I would recommend as fall apples — Snow, Maid- 
en's Blush, Bailey Sweet, Hass, Roman Stem, Cole's Quince, 
Fallsware. And for winter — Ben Davis, White Pippin Wine- 
sap, Rawle's Genett, Jonathan, and Mann apple. There are 
many others that will do well. 

There are a few varieties of tame plum that do very well, 
but I have succeeded best with wild varieties. I hardly ever 
fail of getting a good crop the third year from planting the 
pits, and they have always proved to be of an excellent quali- 
ty. I have had but partial success with tame plums. 

Have succeeded well with strawberries, goose and rasp- 
berries, and grapes. In fact I have never seen a failure 
here. I think the grape merits a more extensive cultivation 
in our county. The grape rot is unknown with us. The 
Concord and Clinton are the leading varieties. Have seen 



222 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Catawbas do well, but they are not as hardy as some others. 
I prune in February. 

Peaches are very uncertain, but have had some to meas- 
ure seven inches in circumference. I get a crop every few 
years, which pays me well for all my trouble. I think the 
trees and buds kill in the fall, as they grow too late and they 
have too much sap in the tree. I had peaches this year, and 
they grew on the topmost limbs, with none on the lower 
branches. The fruit was from ten to fifteen feet from the 
ground, and of course in the most exposed condition. Some 
of the fruit was very nice. 

I am hopeful of the future. I found my hope in the 
belief in the old adage, "What has been done can be done 
again." Orchards planted by the early settlers have done 
well, and are producing good results in both quality and 
quantity. Care should be taken in procuring healthy trees, 
and then good judgment in setting and pruning, and also 
planting at proper distances, say from 25 to 30 feet apart; 
and last, but not least, secure of the hardy varieties, and on- 
ly experiment with other and more costly kinds than those 
mentioned. 

We predict that in a few years our people will be feast- 
ing on apples of the best quality, the products of our own 
soil. Considering everything, the outlook is most encourag- 
ing, and the observer can see a marked improvement in the 
interest manifest in starting and caring for orchards. The 
exhibit at our fair in September last, and the two previous 
years, would put the blush to the cheeks of our sister coun- 
ties in the eastern part of the state. 

Notwithstanding the frequent warnings, unprincipled and 
irresponsible agents — "tree peddlers" — are from year to year 
beating people out of thousands of dollars, that are virtually 
thrown away, by getting worthless stock. But for all this 
we are making progress and no oae familar with the business 
can doubt that our county can become a very successful fruit 
county. Very many orchards have been so loaded that it 
was necessary to prop the branches. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 223 

PIONEERING IN CHILDHOOD 



MISS LYDIA DILLENBECK 



Although children usually look on the bright side of 
things, yet pioneer life to them is not all roses — some thorns 
are mixed in. We well remember our first ride overland 
from Lincoln to our home in an old democrat wagon with 
one of Nebraska's most noted citizens. A dreadful storm 
was approaching from the northwest and was bearing right 
down upon us. Never will I forget the terrible grandeur of 
that spectacle. Long chains of lightning rent the sky, cul- 
minating in solid sheets of gold. We had just reached the 
house when the storm struck, and Oh! how the cotton wood 
timbers of the house creaked. It seemed that all must give 
way, but strangely the old house still stands. Water came 
in everywhere, and we were fairly drowned. We gathered 
up all the tubs, buckets and pans to hold the water. 

That same night we had our first Nebraska supper, made 
up largely of wild gooseberries. I can taste them yet as 
they gave my mouth such a pucker. I passed them to my 
brother; I cannot tell why I wished to afflict him so. 

My father, like all progressive men, came west to find a 
fortune, and his first step was to find a homestead, which he 
found, or rather it found him three miles east of a most 
beautiful village on the banks of the Blue river. We found 
a dug-out ready built and ready to occupy. But on close in- 
spection we found an occupant in a friendly rattler (an old 
settler). We gave him the preference, and father went to 
Seward and hauled lumber to build our house. It was 
large, 12x16 ft., and two stories high. Our neighbors all 
told us that it was too high for our Nebraska winds, but we 
had ample opportunity to test it the first night after moving 
in. The house was sided barn fashion — boards up and down. 
The north wester, or "north twister," came and the rain 
came through every crack and crevice. We all moved into 
the center and then resembled drowned rats. The next 
morning the sun shone out bright and clear as if nothing 
had happened. Our neighbors came to see if any fragments 



224 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

of the house could be seen. They found it right side up, 
and we all rejoiced. 

The prairie fires of pioneer days are something that 
children remember. Par away on the high hills in long 
lines, it made a most beautiful and impressive sight. When 
the wind would rise, it would leap toward the sky and the 
heavens would be all aglow\ When it was headed our way 
it tilled the soul with horror. All the neighbors would turn 
out to fight the demon. The next morning after one of 
these prairie fires, we were out perambulating over the black 
sod and ran upon a colony of "rattlers" basking in the warm 
sunshine. That was a pleasant experience for a child to run 
upon a great lot of ugly serpents. I would like to spin other 
yarns, but must forbear, as room in your book is needed by 
others. 



MILFORD SCHOOLS 

MRS, A, C. RAWLS 



Milford, situated on the beautiful Blue, in the southern 
part of Seward county, is a town of as much note as any oth- 
er town of equal rank in the state. 

But it is particularly of her schools that we wish to 
speak, whose history begins with that of the town itself. A 
very small shack served as the first schoolhouse, with Geo. 
B. France as teacher. Then later when this building proved 
too small; another building used as a Congregational church 
was used, in which two departments were instituted by 
means of curtains serving as a partition. Mr. France was 
principal here also, and Miss Courtright, who afterward be- 
came his bride, was his assistant. Miss Maude Lamson also 
served as an assistant in the same building at a later period. 
A few years later w^e find the schools of Milford being con- 
ducted in the Baptist church building which was afterward 
bought by the village as the regular school building; the 
schools being under the supervision of Wm. Smiley, Mrs. 
Ed. Healey, Miss Mitchell, and others. Then came the era 
of our "brick school." The energetic members of the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 225 

school board never permitted the matter of education to lag 
behind other progressive movements of the town, and a sec- 
ond or suburban school was built across the river for the 
convenience of the East Milford pupils, thus giving room 
for eleven teachers. Prof. VanWeyman was the first to oc- 
cupy the new building. He was followed by Prof. Burkett, 
then Patterson, Oelting, Batcheler, Snare and Hendree. 
Then came a change in the long line' of Prof's; Miss Kate 
Pyott was given the principalship, which place she has oc- 
cupied since 1901 in a manner that has given satisfaction to 
all — thus showing that Milford is not blind to the apprecia- 
tion of woman's ability and to the efforts she is making in 
the development of higher education. 



OAK GROVE SETTLEMENT 



E. W. OLNEY 



John A. Scott located on his claim on section 20, town 
12, range 4 east, in the spring of 1864, and John Owens set- 
tled on section 28 in the summer of 1864. Asa Munn made 
settlement on section 2 in 1866, John Royce on section 28, 
J. D. Maine and J . D. Olney on section 22, Warren Brown 
on section 23. Royal Dart settled on section 32 in 1867, 
S. M. Darnall on section 22 and John Darnall on section 12, 
the same year. 

The first school was taught by Miss Sarah A. Scott on 
the Jack Royce place in a little sod schoolhouse in 1867. 
Rev. George Clapp preached the first sermon in the old log 
school house in the same year. Rev. Robert Rowbottom or- 
ganized the first church (M. E.) in 1875. 

Until 1869 we had to go to Lincoln for our mail. At that 
time an office was established. G. B. Hardenburg was our 
first postmaster, and held his office in the old hoiise of Mil- 
ton Langdon on section 21. A steam saw-mill was es- 
tablished in 1868 by Kirkham and Hughes and proved a 
great help to the people. Our mail was carried by a buck- 
board at first, later by a stage. 

Our growth and progress have been slow but sure. Our 



226 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

growth has been steady. Quite a number of the first settlers 
have passed off the stage of action, among whom were Mil- 
ton Langdon and wife, Mrs. Gillman Garland, David Haw- 
kins, J. D. Maine and wife, and Simeon Munn. 

This region has always been known as Oak Groves, and 
it is quite historic ground. It is unlike any other portion of 
the county. The land is what we term rough or broken, has 
many quite deep canons, and each of these has a beautiful 
rippling brook of clear spring water. Excellent springs are 
numerous. When the settlement began in 1864, these canons 
were all thickly set with oak timber. This timber was hauled 
to the salt works as fuel, and to the tablelands for all pur- 
poses, and finally, when the capital was located at Lancaster 
(Lincoln), scores of teams were kept busy hauling wood, and 
before the cars had reached the new city, these fine groves 
were all, or nearly all destroyed. There was a vast amount 
of valuable timber all through this section of country, and it 
seems sad that it should have been so ruthlessly destroyed. 
Many of these hills are full of a very superior quality of 
limestone. Many kilns of lime were burned, and the lime 
found a market at Lincoln, Seward, and throughout the 
farming region round about. While this is not deemed as 
desirable for farming purposes as the level plain to the west- 
ward, yet we have very many excellent farms in the valleys, 
and for stock purposes our advantages are unsurpassed. 

We have three railroad stations within easy reach — Ger- 
mantown on the B. & M., Raymond on the U. P.. and Bee 
on the Northwestern 

Our soil is excellent, our water is of the very best, and 
abundant, and we generally have happy and comfortable 
homes . 

How we got our start in hogs was related by Mr. Cox, 
the author of this book. There was an old Missourian, we 
forget his name, who wanted to get his hogs out of reach of 
the soldier boys in war time, so in about the spring of 1863, 
he drove forty or fifty shoats up to the Groves, moved his 
family along with them, and sojourned there while the war 
clouds hung heavily over Missouri. The hogs, like the fam- 
ily, ran wild, and were rather more untractable, and w^hen 
the old man found it convenient to move again, the hogs 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 227 

were faring so well in the timber and tall weeds that they 
concluded not to move on uncertainties; they would rather 
stay, and they did stay. So the early settlers found the 
timber full of fat hogs and so did not suffer for meat; and 
frequently an old sow with aline litter of pigs was captured, 
and a start of hogs was secured. 



CAMDEN SETTLEMENT 



MRS, H. W, PARKER 



Beatrice, Neb., Nov. 28. 
Mr. W. W. Cox: 

Dear Sir and Friend — Mr. Parker received your let- 
ter, and being very much engaged in a public way, as city 
councilman, etc. , and just on the eve of his departure to 
California on a visit, he has delegated me to answer yours. 

I am truly interested in your letters of "Then and Now," 
and am very willing to contribute my remembrances if they 
will add interest to your work, but I have forgotten exact 
dates, and have not the faculty of condensing and making 
brief my letters, so as to be suitable for publication, but I 
will do the best I can. 

At one time (perhaps you can remember), the Camden 
Mills was a popular resort for social and Christmas parties, 
dances and New Year's gatherings, etc. One time at a large 
dance, when there were more than one hundred and fifty 
present, after the dance Major Strunk read a beautiful poem, 
after which he read a notice which a Methodist circuit 
preacher then handed me, giving notice that there would be 
preaching at the Mill two weeks from the following Sunday, 
and requesting as large a turnout as was there on the present 
occasion. The result was we had a large congregation, but 
it was hard to get a second audience, for in those days they 
came from ten miles distant and seemed to be attracted by 
amusement and recreation, rather than stale would-be 
preaching; but we were all interested in having good sing- 
ing and enjoyed that part immensely. In those days there 



228 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

were no paid chorister or select singers, but all the audience 
joined in whether they could sing or not. Ha! Ha! 

Raising the mill, the washout, the high water, the losing 
of all our lumber, so that we had to live in a dug-out two 
years more, made a deep and feeling impression on my mind; 
also propping up the roof with six or eight posts inside to 
keep the roof from falling in and burying us with the wagon 
loads of sod and soil that formed the roof. 

For six months I know I suffered torture enough to 
atone for the sins of a lifetime. Did I believe in eternal 
punishment, I should say fleas had filled the bill. 

The venison, elk, and antelope meat were pleasant at- 
tractions with our Indian friends, who camped one winter 
for about three months near (Jamden. The squaws used to 
come over and cut wood for us. At one time I had two 
chopping wood at the door, and had the papooses strapped 
on their boards and kept inside for me to watch. When 
they cried, the squaws would motion me to tilt the board, 
and the little fellows would go to sleep. 

There were many little incidents of interest, but it was 
so long ago that I cannot remember them well enough to fix 
them up in shape to print. I forget their proper connections. 

It was not me that lawyer P. pulled the bed clothes 
from, but my hired girl, Miss Anna Bingham, now Mrs. 
Dan. Harris. I had not yet retired, but I was terribly 
frightened that night, and I have had a dislike for some of 
those folks ever since. 

Fordyce Roper and my husband (Hiram W. Parker) 
built the first saw and grist mill in the county in lb65-6 at a 
cost of $15,000. High water delayed the completion of the 
grist mill by washing out the dam and cutting out a perfect 
race around the mill, submerging their lumber yard, carry- 
ing down the river $2,000 worth of lumber. But with in- 
domitable energy and will to overcome obstacles, such as 
losses, high prices of machinery, etc., the mill was finally 
completed and in successful operation, turning out good 
flour, which caused the general rejoicing of all the settlers 
for many miles around, who had been compelled to go from 
fifty to sixty miles to mill. We had to board mill-wright, 



• HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 229 

carpenters, and other hands more than a full year, instead of 
three months as we had expected. Produce was extremely 
hig'h; I remember we had to pay $3.00 per bushel for pota- 
toes-, 40 cents for butter, and I remember we had to pay Un- 
cle Billy Stanton 27 cents per pound for bacon; coffee, sugar, 
Hour and all other provisions in proportion. We paid the 
commonest carpenter $2.00 per day and board, and the mill- 
wright much more, and this was what swelled the expense 
of the mill. We paid $3.00 per day for our sawyer and $3.00 
per week for kitchen girl, and we had no spacious mansion, 
our home being a dug-out. I do not remember the date 
they got to making flour. I know they had just succeeded 
in getting the three- story frame up the day before the ice 
went out of the river, March, 1866. I know they felt safe, 
as the river was clear of ice, but the water kept rising for 
three days, which we could not account for, but v hen weeks 
had elapsed, news reached Camden that there had been con- 
tinuous rains onthe heads of the river. This was explained 
too late for us to remedy the destruction of the property by 
the flood. 



WEST MILLS SETTLEMENT 

I, M. K, JOHNSON 



Thomas West and family, consisting of his wife Catha- 
rine, and sons Cornelius, Thomas, John, Charles, and James, 
and daughter Isabella settled at West Mills on the West Blue 
in the spring of 1860. They had many hardships to endure 
in 1861; their log cabin, together with about all their world- 
ly goods except a few cattle were burned by the Indians, 
supposed to be Omahas disguised as Sioux. This was in the 
fall, and the family suffered great hardships during the fol- 
lowing winter. The Indians were very troublesome, and 
stole much of Uncle Tommy's crops of that year. With the 
exception of the families of Orin Johnsoa and James West, 
who lived near, there was no !?ettlement nearer than Victor 
Vifquain, near the forks of the Blue, and the Morgans on 
the North Blue, from eight to ten miles distant. 



230 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Their place of trade was Nebraska City, eighty -two 
miles distant. Uncle Tommy started a supply store (this 
was in 1862, according to the best information attainable), 
and once a month sent a team for supplies of such goods as 
were in demand by the frontiersmen. An invoice of a load 
of goods would read about as follows: powder, two kegs; 
lead, from one to two hundred pounds; percussion caps, from 
one to two hundred boxes; flour, bacon, one barrel whiskey; 
one hundred pounds tobacco; fifty or a hundred traps, and 
some miscellaneous articles. When roads were good a trip 
could be made in five days. Although the Indians com- 
mitted many atrocities on the Platte and the Little Blue, and 
were very threatening, Uncle Tommy's family never desert- 
ed their home nor abandoned it during the darkest hours, 
but in times of great danger guarded theii' stock and goods 
as best they could, and at last got on such good terms that 
they Were able to do a thriving trade with the Indians. 
They buried theirson John in 1H62. This was a sad affliction. 
This was probably the first white person buried in the coun- 
ty. John was buried in what is now West Mills cemetery. 

Mr. West built a saw-mill and put in a small burr and 
ground corn as early as the summer of 1H64. 

He is remembered by all the old settlers as a genial, 
kind-hearted man. The latch-string of his cabin door was 
always out, and no one in want ever called on him in vain. 
By his energy a postoffice was established in 1865 at the mill 
and store. He was elected county clerk at the first organi- 
zation in 1865 He died in 1879, and was buried beside his 
son, being followed to the grave by all his old neighbors as 
mourners of one they had known to love and respect. His 
widow followed him to the tomb in the winter of 1885. 
These dear people have gone to the better world, leaving 
very many sad hearts at their departure. Uncle Tommy 
acted well his part in the development of this new land, and 
for the many acts of kindness shown he will ever be remem- 
bered by all the earlier settlers. 

(The author of this book has a very warm place in his 
heart for the memory of the kind old people.) 

Uncle Tommy and family came from Maryland to Mis- 
souri, thence to Nebraska. They started for California to 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 231 

seek gold, but became disgusted with the company that they 
started with, and left it, and made their home in the wilder- 
ness. His Son Charles now lives on the old farm, and James 
and Thomas live within a mile. Isabella, now Mrs. Orin 
Johnson, still lives on a homestead wdiich her husband set- 
tled upon in 1H61. Her husband went to Oregon many years 
ago, and has not been heard from since he left, and it is 
supposed that he is dead. Cornelius lives in Missouri. Orin 
Johnson's family lost several children in an early day — 
1867— with the measles. Only two of th^^ children yet live, 
and they, Fanny and Ida, are living with their mother. 
There was no doctor nearer than Salt Basin. A messenger 
was sent, and made the round trip, tifty-six miles, in eight 
hours, bringing back a Frenchman who claimed to be a doc- 
tor, and the people expected that he knew his business. He 
proved to be a fraud in all but his charges. All the children 
whom he doctored died. 

In the years 1H64 and 1H65 settlers began to locate all 
along the West Blue valley. At that time the idea prevailed 
that the uplands were worthless for cultivation. It was 
thought that the showers only followed toe valleys of the 
streams, and that the high prairies could not be made to pro 
duce grain. The early settlers on Salt creek used to say 
that it never rained twenty miles west of Sail creek. 

William J. Clark moved to his homestead just below 
West's mill in 1865. Mr. Clark came from New^ York state 
to Illinois, when Chicago was about the size of Seward. He 
run a fishing boat on the lake until he moved to Seward 
county. He had buried his wife at Chicago, and was accom- 
panied to this county by his three daughters. Mr. Clark 
proved to be a thrifty and successful farmer. He raised a 
large amount of vegetables and supplied the travel on the great 
road. He was a model frontiersman. He had had the misfort- 
une to have his right hand crippled, yet he could do and did 
about as much work as other men. He died in*lHS6, leaving 
quite a handsome property and some money in the bank for 
his daughters. He was highly respected by all his neigh- 
bors, and mourned by a host of friends. 

Samuel Englehouft and wife (Amanda) and their five 
children, Ellen, Mary Anne, George, Daniel, and Albert, 



232 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

moved to this county in the spring of 1865. Alice, their 
younger daughter, was born here in 1865. Albert died in 
October, 1882. When they arrived in Seward county they 
had only a team and a wagon, a few sacks of corn meal, and 
not a dollar in money. He bravely went to work and raised 
a patch of sod corn, and worked in Mr. West's mill, and in a 
few years became well to do. He was very fond of hunting; 
was an excellent neighbor and well respected. He died Sep- 
tember 16, 1885, and was buried in the cemetery bearing his 
own name, leaving his aged widow, who, with her son George, 
still lives on the old homestead. The other children are all 
married and doing well. The family originally came from 
Pennsylvania to Manona, Illinois;from thereto Vinton, Iowa, 
thence to Nebraska. It is said to the credit of the family 
that no one was ever permitted to leave their house hungry. 

Jesse R. Johnson and wife, Rachel, with family, William 
P. and Clara B. , came to their present home, two and a half 
miles above West's mills, in 1864. Mr. Johnson came from 
Cincinnati in an early day to Illinois. At the time they set- 
tled in Seward county, provisions were scarce and high in 
price, and times were very hard, but by great energy the 
family lived it through until brighter days dawned, and now 
they are the happy possessors of a goodly heritage, having 
a fine farm and a magnificent orchard that has been bearing 
fruit for many years. He was the first (we believe) to plant 
an orchard in the county. Fruit was a hobby with him, and 
he always insisted that this would prove to be a splendid 
fruit county. Others watched his success, and now this 
county compares very favorably with any portion of Nebraska 
or the West. Mr. J. served several terms as justice of the 
peace, and was the first elected in the south part of the coun- 
ty. He was a good hunter and trapper and his table never 
was without meat. The furs and pelts secured were a source of 
profit. Through his energy school district No. 3 was formed, 
and a log school-house, which still stands as a landmark, 
was built mostly by himself. This old school-house stands 
on the farm of David Barton. His daughter Clara, now Mrs. 
A. C. Smith, lives in the same neighborhood. 

James West, brother of Thomas West, and his wife, 
Margaret, settled on a nice farm in the vicinity of his broth- 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 233 

er's farm in the spring of 1860. They then had two daugh- 
ters, Ehza and Kate. Alexander, their oldest son, was born 
November 7, 1H60, and was the iirst white child born in the 
county. Alexander continued his residence in the county 
until the fall of 1887, or about twenty-seven years. The 
father and all the family, consisting at present of eight chil- 
dren, moved to Kansas, whither they were followed by the 
kindly wishes of all the neighbors. Mr. West was a very 
generous man, and any weary stranger found a hearty wel- 
come under his roof. The family had their full share of pri- 
vations and hardships of a frontier life. 

David Barton moved to the neighborhood in the spring 
of 18()4; was, and still is, a bachelor, but built a log house 
on his homestead; came with but a pittance, and has been 
remarkably successful; is now the owner of a large estate, 
and is at this time the heaviest taxpayer of "N" precinct. 
Mr. Barton came from England, in 1858, almost a penniless 
lad, and by his industry and careful management he has ac- 
quired a handsome fortune, although a generous man. 
Young men may take pattern of him. Mr. B. has no rela- 
tive in this county. 

Israel M. K. Johnson, son of Jesse R. Johnson, followed 
his parents to the new home in July, 1865, and took a home- 
stead. He had just returned from the army, where he had 
served three years; first in Company K, 138th Ills. Vol., and 
afterwards in Company E, 34th Ills. Israel was fond of 
hunting and trapping, and in company with the West boys he 
frequently made long trips to the Little Blue, in Kansas, 
and to the Platte, and once as far as the Dismal river, where 
he had a close call for his scalp. As he had been through the 
war, he had become somewhat wreckless. He often guided 
trains to Denver, was a success as a buffalo hunter, and never 
returned from the chase empty-handed. At this time they 
w^ere plentiful some distance westward, but only occasionally 
one would appear within fifteen or twenty miles. Thomas 
West, Jr., killed the last one ever killed in Seward county, 
in 1866. Elk, deer, antelope, and wild turkeys were plenti- 
ful, and were frequently killed. "Id," as they called him, 
was a great hunter; his rifle or revolver was never out of 
reach . He thought that a man that could not take horse, gun. 



234 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

and blankets, and rough it for three or four weeks at a time, 
had no business so far west as Sew^ard county. At one time 
he and Mr. McFadden had thuir wagon wheel and harness 
burned by prairie fire while a hundred miles from home on a 
hunt, south of Kearney, and they came home with a rawhide 
harness and a pole under the wagon axle. It was a hard- 
looking outfit, but they were glad to reach home even in this 
sorry plight, as it was at the time of the Indian massacre on 
the Platte. They had a hard fight with the Sioux, and if it 
had not been for timely assistance from Buffalo Bill (Hon. 
Wm. Cody) and his Pawnees, the Indians would have taken 
their scalps. They helped to bury two men, a woman, and 
a child that the Indians had murdered, just below Martin's 
ranch, on the Platte. Travel on the great roads was about 
suspended, on account of the Indian troubles. 

Rev. L. Oliver, a Methodist minister, settled near West's 
mill in 1869. He had a large family. His wife died in 1871, 
and he in 1874. He was one of the pioneer ministers of the 
south inirt of the county. Mr. Oliver was a good man and 
did much in moulding the moral and religious sentiment of 
the ccmmunity. We are sorry that we can give so little of 
his history. 

Abner M. Richardson came from Iowa in June, 1869, 
and made his home in the south part of the county. His 
wife (Maria) died September 19, 1885. They had lost their 
son Benjamin with small -pox in February, 1879. Mr. Rich- 
ardson still lives on the old homestead with his children, 
John, Emeline, andEmarette. He is now eighty-three years 
old and very feeble. He has been a very industrious man. 
In his old age he suffers from rheumatism. 

From 1H67 to 1869 great numbers of homesteads were 
taken along the Blue. Alonzo Clark, with a large family, 
settled near Jesse R. Johnson; also, a man by the name of 
Euland; and later, George Campbell and his brother Jacob, 
and Andrew Davenport, from Iowa. George Campbell was 
a blacksmith, and was of great help to the settlement, as 
before this we all had to go to Camden or to Louis Morgan's, 
on the North Blue, ten miles away. We usually went to 
Morgan's, as we could get the w^ork the same day, and at 
Camden there were so many mules to shoe, and so many 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 235 

wagons to mend for travelers on the road, tliat we were 
compelled to remain over night or make the second trip. 
Mr. Campbell was just the man we wanted. From that time 
our r-ommunity has prospered. We boast of no large towms 
or cities, but we have as beautiful homes as any part of the 
state, and enjoy many luxuries. We had in early days to 
struggle for food and clothing, and were often severely 
pinched, and had it not been for Uncle Tommy West many 
of us would have been compelled to leave our homes. David 
Barton, W. J. Clark, Samuel Englehaupt, and my father did 
all that was possible to assist the people, and whether the 
settler had money or not, they were supplied as long as the 
supply lasted. Frequently corn meal was the principal diet. 

Nearly all our first settlers were poor, and consequently 
times become very hard with them . We have known families 
to live a whole winter on corn meal and what rabbits they 
could kill with clubs. Salt was scarce, and we had to make 
pilgramages to the salt basins for our supplies. On one of 
these trips we first became acquainted with Mr. Cox, the 
author of this history, but in what year we have forgotten . 
We do not know if he recollects or not. Our first doctor, in 
any reasonable distance, was Dr. Band, of Milford. The 
Otoes and Omahas frequently brought their whole village of 
tents and would camp for weeks at a time near the mill, and 
run all the game out of the county, so that we would not be 
able to kill any for our use. We then, as now, thought the 
only "good Indian was a dead one." But for all that, we 
believe they were no worse thieves than the same number of 
whites under no more restraints. 

What a change twenty-three years has brought! New- 
comers to Seward county can hardly realize the wonderful 
changes that have occurred in these years. 



236 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

"B" PRECINCT SETTLEMENT 

F, M. TIMBLIN 



Hampton, Neb., Nov. 27. 
W. W. Cox, Esq., Seward, Neb.: 

Dear Friend — Your kind letter asking me to write a 
history of "B" precinct, in Seward county, Neb., was received 
several days ago. First. I did not move into that pre- 
cinct until April, 1869, and there was considerable settle- 
ment there before that time. Second. I have forgotten the 
dates of a great many interesting events of early times. Yet, 
being always ready to assist a friend in any laudable enter- 
prise, I will try to give you a few points and incidents which 
may assist you in your undertaking. 

The precinct, as first organized, comprised township 12 
in ranges 1 and 2, and the west half of range H east of the 
6th principal meridian, and being six miles wide by fifteen 
long, and was known as "Lincoln creek," or Plum creek, pre- 
cinct. The first settlement was made along the Blue river, 
about 1H64 or 1865, John and Thomas Shields, Robert Mc- 
Crosson, and George Read being among, if not the first set- 
tlers. A few settlers also went up Lincoln creek, among the 
first of whom were Charles Shaffer, the Hornburgs, Jack- 
mans, Ragans, Reynolds, and Hartmans. In 1870 I assessed 
this whole territory (6x15 miles) in about five days, and by 
going up Lincoln creek on one side and down the other, got 
all the inhabitants west of the Blue river. In 1868 the Hick- 
mans (J. D., William, Joseph, J. W., and H. W.), T. J. Poore, 
John and Thomas Quillen, John and Peter Varner, and Wm. 
Moore settled on the "divide" between the Blue and Plum 
creek, in what is now "B" precinct proper, and in 1869 F. M. 
Timblin, H. G. Dawley, Elias McClure, Amos Coleman, Wil- 
liam and Jesse Knight, E. H. Noxon, J. T. Davis, and James 
Read completed the settlement of government land on this 
divide (Shoestring prairie), while the Bates brothers, Amos 
Donaldson, Mike Dunigan, Esquire Batchelder, S. D. Love, 
Sabin Stanwood, and others settled the divide between Plum 
ere 3k and Oak Groves. 

The first school- house built in the precinct was a small 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 237 

sod house in the north-east corner of section 32, in the fall of 
1869, and was built by the settlers, who, having no money, 
each did his share of breaking, hauling, and laying the sod, 
while some furnished poles and brush for the root", others a 
door or window frame, or door or window, and each furnished 
seats and desks for the scholars he had to send to school. 
The house was built and seated in this way, but as yet there 
was no way provided to warm it. A stove must be had, but 
how? It was decided that those having timber should cut a 
load of cordwood, and those who had no timber of their own 
should go out onto section "37" and cut a load, and they 
would take it to Lincoln, sell it, and buy a stove. This plan 
was carried out, and in the latter part of November nine wag- 
ons loaded with cordwood wended their way to Lincoln 
through about eight inches of snow, and returned with a sec- 
ond-hand wood stove, and the first school-house in the pre- 
cinct was ready for occupancy. 

The first term of school was taught by P. M. Timblin, 
and was paid for by subscription. The house was small. 
poorly furnished and lighted, but I doubt very much if the 
people ever enjoyed themselves any better, spent their even- 
ings more profitably, or formed ties of friendship which will 
be more true or lasting than when they met in the little old 
sod school-house. 

The election which decided the county seat contest was 
held for this precinct in a house on the hill just east of the 
Blue river. The river happened to be very high at that 
time, and the only bridges were one at Seward and one at 
Ulysses. In order, therefore, to get the voters out, it was 
necessary to have a crossing near the place of voting. For 
this purpose ropes were procured and logs fioat to a narrow 
place in the river, and a "drift" or "gorge" formed on each 
side of the stream, and connected by boards or poles laid 
from one to other; and men stayed there all day to help the 
timid across, while wagons ran regularly between this "cross- 
ing" and the place of voting, thus taking voters to the polls 
and returning them to their own conveyances on the other 
side of the river. Elections in those days were fully as in- 
teresting and exciting as at present. At the election to vote 
bonds in aid of the Midland Pacific railroad every vote in "B" 



238 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

precinct was polled except live, and these five men were not 
in the precinct on that day. Men drove over the precinct 
with two or three men in a was^on, and when they found a 
man who was in favor of the bonds (and they all were, but 
had not time to go to election), some one of the party stayed 
and worked in his place while the balance took him to the 
polls, let him vote, and returned with him. They called 
this "working the railroad," but they never got any pay for 
it, except the benefits derived from the building of the road. 
The foregoing may assist you some in your work, and 
I might have added that it was in the sod school-house that 
the Hon. T. Y. Darnell made his maiden speech. If there 
is anything further, please let me know, and I will do what 
I can to accommodate you. 

Your respectfully, 

F. M. Timblin. 

We have told some pretty big yarns in these reminis- 
cences^ but we believe Bro. Timblin has taken the rag off the 
bush in the wood and stove story; just think of nine big 
loads of wood only paying for a second-hand stove. As we 
remember wood at the time was worth from eight to ten" 
dollars per cord, but we don't know how second-hand stoves 
were quoted. 

Author. 



HARDSHIPS AND PRIVATIONS OF PIONEERS 
MISS INEZ FRINK 

My father, D. R. Fink and family, of wife and four chil- 
dren removed from Clark county, Iowa, to the present home 
in "L" precinct in September, 1H77. 

In the first years the family shared the hardships and 
privations of most of the pioneer settlers. The family 
home is 2h miles southwest of Goehner. When the family 
arrived in the prairie schooner, the county presented a deso- 
late appearance and looked rather discouraging. The farm 
was almost covered with tickle grass. The little land broken 
by the former occupant, had sort of gone back. Our first 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 239 

house was 12x14 and it served as kitchen, dining room, sit- 
ting room, parlor and bed room In the ensuing spring a 
sod addition for a l^itchen and then we had plenty of room. 
Most of our neighbors w^ere living in soddies. Among them 
we remember John Hood, Cline Rhodes, E. W. S. Wingfield, 
Jolm Perkins, Chas. Emerson, John Burkett, John Florin, 
Geo. Purvis, James Robertson, N. E. A. Hawley, Barney 
Bonham, John Knerr, Ransom Walker, old Father Wheeler, 
R. S. Piper, Joshua Griffin, L. J. Graul, T. J. Foster and 
Peter Ogilvie. Most of these were homesteaders. A few 
of these had small frame houses and the balance lived in 
soddies. 

The first neighbor to visit the new comers was Chas. 
Emerson, a very pleasant man and a good talker. He told 
them all about the country. He tried to make them welcome 
but the old man rather overdid the thing. He told them too 
much. He introduced the grasshopper question and that made 
the family have the blues. Then the wind was on its bad be- 
havior that day; it blew a gale and the old man expatiated 
on the wind and said it was so common in Nebraska that 
people had learned to like it. Mr. Todd's people were our 
nearest neighbors. They soon sold to Mr. Cromwell. They 
proved excellent neighbers. They were always ready and 
willing to lend a helping hand in time of trouble or sickness. 
Mr. Cromwell took leave of us in 1901 and passed to the 
great beyond and left his good wife to mourn his loss. Our 
post ofdce and trading place was at Seward. They attended 
church at the Mound Prairie school house a mile north west 
of the present town of Goehner. Jerome Aldreck bought 
the building, tore it down and moved it to Beaver City. 
When the family went to church they hitched to the lumber 
wagon and loaded up with the neighbors and children. Rev. 
Chas. Bradley, Rev. C. E. Phinney, Rev. Winn, Rev. A. E. 
Beggs and Rev. E. W. Johnson served the people as preachers. 
Most of the old neighbors and friends are gone, some to 
other fields and many to their long home. The memory of 
the old times and friends are dear to us and are kept green 
in our memories. 

[We take it that Miss Inez was a later comer to the 
Frink home. — Author.! 



240 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

GRASSES 



CALVIN J. WRIGHi 



Your requisition of a contribution relating to the various 
grasses grown in Seward county received, and replying I 
will say you have chosen a poor subject to discuss the matter 
as I have done no farming for ten years past. 

Twenty-five years ago there was scarcely an attempt 
made to grow other than native grasses in this county ex- 
cept a little blue-grass and white clover, as lawn grass. 
The first trial for feeding purposes was to grow millet of 
various varieties all of which produced well but was not sat- 
isfactory as it had to be sown every year and is rather rough 
feed for stock. Then came clover, timothy and blue- grass 
and in later years alfalfa and brome grass. The latter is 
being introduced quite extensively and is thought to be su- 
perior to any yet tried in this county for pasture and makes 
hay that stock prefer to timothy and clover. Alfalfa does 
well here also but many think it a rather course feed, espe- 
cially for horses. Blue-grass makes tine early and late pas- 
ture but is comparatively worthless during July and August 
and is practically worthless for hay. On my farm we keep 
about two hundred acres of timothy and clover mixed for 
pasturage and hay and so far have considered it the best all 
around crop for summer and winter feeding. 

Our Seward county soil is very rich loam but becomes 
dry on the surface within twenty-four hours after a rain, 
therefore it takes more care and more seed to obtain a good 
stand of grass than it does in the eastern states. The best 
method we have found is to use one fourth clover and three 
fourths timothy seed and sow it in the fall on land prepared 
for drilling in rye or wheat and do so just before drilling in 
the grain. We sow one bushel of the mixed seed to four 
acres of land and have not failed yet in securing a good stand 
of grass. The same result follows if the grass and grain are 
sown between corn rows. I would recommend every farmer 
to keep one third of his land seeded down in this way and 
change the land to grain crops every three to five years. 
Good grass and hay can be raised in Seward county as in any 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 241 

other place on earth. I had one thh'ty-tive acre field in tim- 
othy and clover and cut it for hay fourteen years in succes- 
sion obtaining an average of nearly two tons per acre yearly. 
If the above rule for seeding, etc. were followed our land 
would never wear out but would constantly increase in pro- 
duction and value. 



SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY 



SUPERINTENDENT E, KOCH 



Seward county is divided into ninety-one and one-half 
school districts; No. 1, known as the Camden school in the 
south west corner of "P" precinct was the first one organ- 
ized; No. 98 or the Bee school being the last district formed; 
No. ^0, north of Utica, was discontinued a few years ago 
and the territory added to Nos. 36 and 54. 

Seward county has 94 school houses, three of which are 
brick, two in Seward and one in Milford, and the rest con- 
structed of frame. The school rooms in general are in good 
repair and the interior of the rooms in most school houses is 
bright and cheerful. Many of the interiors of our rural 
school iiouses are papered, have pictures on the walls, and 
in general appear clean and cheerful. 

A school board association, organized three years ago, 
has done much to better the condition of our rural schools. 
The school boards have come to realize that the best teacher 
is always the cheapest when the real worth of the teacher to 
the pupils is taken into consideration. The result is, higher 
wages are being paid and teachers are thereby encouraged 
to better prepare themselves for the noble work before them . 
As high as $50 per month is being paid to women teaching 
in the rural schools this year, while the average monthly 
salary for women in the county last year was $38,43 and the 
average salary for men was $59.40. 

For self improvement and to keep in touch with the 
work neighboring teachers are doing, the county is divided 
into eleven teachers' reading circle sections. These circles 
meet regularly once every two weeks and pursue the state 



242 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

teachers' reading circle course. In this way younger and 
more inexperienced teachers meet regularly with the older 
teachers and town principals, and thus besides studying 
good books on teaching, receive many valuable suggestions 
from their more experienced fellow-workers. Besides these 
circle meetings, the teachers meet in county associations 
three or four times each year. 

The total expenditures for the public schools for the 
year ending the second Monday in July, 1904, w^as 165634.13. 
Qf this sum, $42276.26 was paid to the 125 teachers employed 
in the county, $34033.61 was paid to the 108 lady teachers 
and $8242.65 to the 17 men teachers engaged. This $65634. 13 
was spent on a total enrollment of 3947 pupils, or an average 
cost of $16.63 per year to educate one pupil per enrollment. 
An enrollment of 3947 out of a school census of 5544 in the 
county would show that 1597 children between the ages of 
five and twenty-one years did not attend school at all. This 
however is not the case, since we have twelve German Paro- 
chial schools, some of which have as high as seventy or 
more on roll. Eight of these private schools employ w^ell 
trained teachers and some excellent work is done. In the 
other private schools, the local minister is the instructor 
Where a congregation employs a teacher, ten months school 
is taught. The forenoon is given exclusively to German and 
religion and the afternoons are given to instruction in Eng- 
lish exclusively. The attendance in these private schools is 
usually very regular. 

The average length of school term in the ninety-one and 
one-half districts was eight and one-fifth months, with no 
district with less than six months, and but two or three of 
that length. The public schools of course are free to all 
who wish to attend. Even the text books and all other 
.school supplies are furnished, and it seems to us that with 
these splendid school advantages no boy or girl should be 
deprived of a good liberal education, for aftei" all, this is the 
best heritage we can give our boys and girls for the duties of 
life. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 243 

ORLANDO CASSLER MURDER CASE 



In the forepart of July, 1878, a stranger from the state 
of Kansas, by the name of G. L. Monroe, was traveling 
through this neighborhood, and happened to fall into the 
company of Orlando J. Gassier, a resident of the southwest- 
ern portion of the county. The two camped just west of the 
city on the river bank, on the afternoon of July 7th, and dur- 
ing the night, while a violent thunder storm was raging. 
Gassier murdered his comrade and new-made friend, sunk 
the body in the river, and took possession of the team, telling 
his neighbors that lie had bought the team. Some of the 
citizens of the city happened to be fishing a day or two after 
the occurrence, and found the body floating in the water. 
The coroner's jury soon found a clue to the murder, and 
Orlando was arrested, tried, and convicted, and sentenced to 
be hanged on the 20th of May, 1879. The black Friday ar- 
rived, and a great host of people gathered into the city from 
all the surrounding country, as word had gone out that the 
barracks would probably be torn dowm. The sherifl" had 
taken what he supposed to be ample precautions for the pro- 
tection of the barracks. He had placed quite a large number 
of deputies and policemen, properly armed with billies, 
around the barracks, and had constructed a barb-wire fence 
around a space surrounding the building, which was denom- 
inated a deed line, and all the people were warned not to 
step over that line; but little did they heed the mandate. 
There seemed to be an inordinate desire to see the wretched 
man hung, and five or six thousand men, women, and chil- 
dren surged back and forth with an irresistible force, and 
just before noon some reckless fellows gave a whoop and a 
hurrah, and those barracks were scattered as if a cyclone 
had struck them in far less time than it takes to write a line 
of this paragraph. The sheriff saw in a moment that he was 
in the hands of the mob, to do the will of their good pleasure; 
their pleasure was to see Orlando hung, and if the sheriff was 
unwilling to transact the business in their presence they 
would do the work for him in his presence, and that right 
soon. So he assured the mob that the execution should occur 
in proper time, and that he did not need their help. The 



244 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

drop fell in due time, and Orlando J. Gassier paid in full, 
as far as possible, the penalty of his crime, but the demoral- 
izing spectacle of a public execution produced a bad effect 
upon our people, and brought out a spirit of lawlessness that 
barely missed producing another murder before the day 
closed. 

We do not wish to mince matters, or in any way excuse 
the lawless spirit of many people on that occasion in tearing 
down the enclosure, but we would say that the governor was 
short-sighted, that provisions to maintain the dignity of the 
law W'Cre not made, and especially so when a like occurrence 
had happened at Minden only a short time previous. If the 
law is worth a place on our statute books, then when neces- 
sary usa all the powers of the state to enforce it, and not 
allow lawless ruffianism to control. 

We quote for the curious the last words of the doomed 
man: ''Well, now this will finish Orlando Cassler's life. Be- 
hold the scaffold with Orlando Gassier standing on it here. 
This is the last of trouble and sorrow. I am sorry, gentle- 
man, that I have to die here, but there is a world above, 
where there is no trouble and no sorrow. Goodbye, gentle- 
man." His spiritual advisor was Rev. Shank, of the M. E. 
Ghurch, w^ho delivered an eloquent and fervent prayer. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



PRECINCT HISTORIES 



It will be noted that up to a recent date, each geographical town- 
ship was a precinct. In later years the city of Seward was made into 
a separate precinct or town. It may also be noted that "^" and "O" 
precincts were each divided into two voting precincts. These towns or 
precincts, except Sewai'd, are named for the first sixteen letters of the 
alphabet from A. to P. The city is dealt with in a separate chapter 
and also are the principal villages. 



A PRECINCT 

"A" precinct or town is the northeast corner of the 
county, and was originally known as town 12, range 4, east 
of 6th P. M. 

The land is a succession of rolling hills. It is watered 
by Oak creek and its branches. The narrow valleys are very 
fertile. There are some excellent springs. There are quar- 
ries of excellent limestone. Some of the hills have gravelly 
points, and in many places large boulders crop out. The 
farms are well adapted to dairying and stock growing. Eggs 
and poultry are considered very profitable. At present they 
have no postoffice, but the people are well supplied by rural 
routes. Good markets are within easy distance at German- 
town, Bee, Raymond, and Valparaiso. They have live good 
frame school houses with two hundred and nine pupils en- 
rolled. There ai-e two hundred and twenty-four farms or 
sub-divisions of land as shown by the records. There is a 
population of about one thousand. 

The reader is referred to the valuable historic letter of 
E. W. Olney for information in regard to the first settlement. 
Very few of the first settlers yet remain. Great numbers of 
those who blazed the way are gone to their rest, among 
whom we may mention Milton Langdon and wife, John Scott, 



246 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

J. D. Maine and wife, Warren Brown, Mr. Hawkins, John 
Owens, Asa Munn, and Royal Dart. 

The present people seem to be quite prosperous, and 
many of them have beautiful homes. While the general sur- 
face of the land is not so desirable as in other parts, yet the 
people have made great headway and are doing well . 

B PRECINCT 

This precinct is tow^n 12, range 3, east of the sixth P. M. 
It is mostly a great plain of table land reaching from the 
Blue Valley at the southwest corner almost to the breaks or 
rough land to the eastward. It comprises thirty-six sections 
of most excellent and valuable land, which is divided into one 
hundred and ninety-one farms and sub-divisions. 

Plum creek cuts the eastern half of the township. The 
land is mostly smooth prairie, but it is well drained. There 
is no swampy land, and none that can not be cultivated. It 
is covered with beautiful farms. It has between six and sev- 
en miles of railroad with one good shipping point. Much of 
it is near Staplehurst, and all parts of it are very handy to 
the city. It has six school houses with two hundred thirty- 
eight pupils enrolled. It has about twelve hundred people. 
The reader is referred to the excellent historic letter of F. M. 
Timblin in regard to the early settlement. There are a 
great many orchards; the farmers are all in a very prosper- 
ous condition and are making their homes beautiful. 

The litttle village of Bee is a good shipping point with 
two elevators, a bank, a good school, and several business 
houses, including a hotel and churchs. 



C PRECINCT 

"C" precinct is located in town 12, range 2 east of 6th 
P. M. Was first settled by Frank Shields in the winter of 
1863 and 1H64, on what is known as the "Casey Place." His 
settlement was not very permanent. Among the fir.st to 
make permanent settlement were Wm. Reed, Judge John W. 
Shields, (Jeo. Reed, John A. Durland, and Frank E. Pitt. 
These all settled in 1864 and 1865, and were soon followed 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 247 

by Moses Mitchell, Walter Hoops, and two or three others 
whose names hav^e escaped our memory. These early set- 
tlers all located by the river, for the sake of the timber and 
water. Settlements did not penetrate the high prairie much 
until 1H68, when people came like a Hock of pigeons. 

"C" precinct is cut in two unequal parts by Blue river, 
and has excellent water powers that are yet undeveloped. 
Lincoln creek also cuts the southwest corner of the precinct, 
and furnishes a splendid water power, which has a fine mill 
at Marysville. This mill was built by Luke Agur in 1870, 
and has been lately rebuilt, enlarged, and much improved. 
It is now a first class flouring mill with all modern improve- 
ments. 

Marysville is the nucleus of a large German settlement 
that extends far up and down the creek; and overreaches the 
boundaries of the precinct. They had located a store and 
church, with a school house, soon after the founding of 
Seward. Wm. Hornburg, John Schoepp, and old Mr. Hart- 
man's family were among the first to settle there. George 
C. McKay, John Gladwish, Father Archer and his family, 
and some others settled on the prairie between the river and 
Lincoln creek, and further up the river Thos. Corr and John 
Gill banks settled in 1868. Marysville remains a trading 
point; was a post office many years supplied by a star route, 
and the Lutheran church makes it a prominent gathering 
place for the people . 

Staplehurst was founded by George C. McKay in the 
autumn of 1879, immediately after the completion of the A. 
& N. R. R. Mr. McKay erected the first dwelling. T. W. 
Lowrey opened a grain house the same fall. Staplehurst 
grew slowly at first, but in 1882-83 it began to assume im- 
portance as a shipping and trading point. Messrs. Goehner 
& Co. laid out a large addition to the town, and many busi- 
ness houses sprang up immediately, including two first class 
elevators, a good hotel, a fine church, and a host of dwell- 
ings. They have a school house, and maintain a graded 
school. The place contains hear three hundred inhabitants, 
and is organized as a village; enjoys a good trade, and is 
prosp)erous. 

The precinct contains two hundred and fifty-one farms 



248 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

or sub-divisions of land. It has five school districts includ- 
ing one graded school at Staplehurst. Each supplied with 
good buildings with an enrollment of 368 scholars. 

Staplehurst has grown to be a trading point of much 
importance and is improving from year to year. It has a 
good strong bank, large and well tilled merchantile houses. 
It has a good lumber yard, a great livery barn, two good 
elevators, good churches, a hotel and many pretty dwellings. 
It is only a few minutes ride to the county seat. The town- 
ship has six miles of rail road and a creditable depot. 

T. C. Allen is responsible for the following story: Prob- 
ably the first time a religious meeting was held, old Father 
Worley, of Ulysses, was preaching in a sod school houses, 
and was talking of hell and heaven in an old fashioned way, 
and had the congregation pretty well excited, when a serpent 
fell into the lap of one of the ladies, from the brush covering 
of the house. The audience were worse scared at the snake 
than at the preacher's hell, which he was so ably de.scribing. 
For further particulars the reader is referred to the Rev. 
Father Worley, but guess he can't as he is in Heaven. 



D PRECINCT 

Town 12, range 1, east of the 6th P. M. is our north- 
western precinct located upon the great plateau between the 
Blue river and Lincoln creek and its small tributaries. This 
is a most magnificent tract of farming land and is thoroughly 
well improved. It was settled by a very enterprising class 
of people who knew how to make the best of their opportu- 
nities. There is no village within its borders and only just 
a little corner of the precinct is cut by the Hastings branch 
of the Northwestern railroad. There is no postofiice, but the 
rural routes help the people to their daily mails. 

Settlement began in 1867, when Wm. Jackman and Jesse 
Horton located on Lincoln Creek. Mr. Horton moved to the 
county with a pair of oxen harnessed like horses, only a lit- 
tle differently arranged. This was a novel sight to see oxen 
in harness. In the long ago they had a postoffice named Or- 
ton, kept at a farm house and supplied by a star route with 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 249 

mails semi-occasionally. We believe that Stephen Phillips 
was the honorable postmaster. 

Wm. Reynolds settled on the creek in 1868. He it was 
w^ho hanged himself at Utica some years later while laboring 
under a tit of temporary insanity. Mr. Johnson, who took 
the first harvester to the county, and O. C. Ragan of the 
hawk-pie story, settled in 1870, also A. D. Hornburg; then in 
1871 A. D. Richie and his sons, Hon. W. E. and brother T. 
C. Allen and E. B. Hatch and others made settlement on the 
high prairie. Mr. Hatch taught the lirst school in li-i7l' in 
the Jackman dugout. 

The lands of the i)recinct are all well drained and en- 
tirely free from marshes, and there is scarcely an acre but 
what may be plowed. A large German settlement occupies 
the southern portion; they have become wealthy and have 
elegant homes. 

The precinct has two hundred and thirty-one farms and 
sub-divisions of land. It has four school districts with good 
buildings and two hundred and thirteen pupils. The precinct 
has five market towns within easy reach : Surprise, Gresham, 
Utica, Staplehurst and Ulysses, so that every family is with- 
in easy reach of a good market. "D" precinct is pre-emi- 
nently a good farming country. 



E PRECINCT 

This is town 11, range 1, east of the 6th P. M. ; this is 
one of the western precincts and is situated on the great up- 
land plain between Lincoln creek and the South Blue. 
There are no running streams within its borders. It is a 
va.st level tract of land with here and there a sw^amjjy tract 
that needs draining. It is nearly all excellent farming land 
under a high state of cultivation. It was first settled in 1871 
when Hon. Geo. A. Derby, Joseph Jones, M C. Wriglit, 
Samuel Gleason, H. M. Coleman and old Father Greenwood 
made homes upon the great wilderness of prairie. About 
this time the state road was located from Seward to the 
westward, and passed through the precinct. Great numbers 
of people came and took homesteads in 1872. In its early 
history there were no such thrilling incidents as occurred on 



250 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the great freight roads to the southward. Seward was 
quite a village when the settlement began in that region, 
and the people were not so isolated from the world at large. 
Then it was not long until the locomotive had broken a trail 
to Sew^ard wiiich was only from eight to fourteen miles 
away. Yet many of the settlers saw some tough times, al- 
though they w^ere free from Indian scares and were in no 
especial danger of starving as older settlers were close at 
hand. From the first the development and progress has 
kept pace with other parts of the county. Hundreds of 
planted groves make the scenery beautiful to look upon. 
Where not one tree was in sight in that wide extending 
plain, now looking in any direction it appears like an un- 
broken line of timber in the distance as far as the eye can 
reach. 

Miss Clara Derby had the honor of teaching the first 
school of the precinct in the summer of 1H73, in an old sod- 
die of course. While "E" precinct is one of our most popu- 
lous townships, there are only four school districts. Utica 
maintains a fine graded school in a large tw^o story school- 
house. The country districts all have good frame buildings. 
Pupils enrolled number three hundred eighty, of which two 
hundred eleven are in the Utica district. The township 
contains two hundred and twenty-six farms or subdivisions 
of land. The Burlington railway was completed to. Utica in 
the fall of 1877, when Utica was founded. (See historic 
sketch of Utica.) 

F PRECINCT 

"P" precinct is located in town 11, range 2 east of 6th P. 
M. This beautiful precinct is principally upland prairie. 
Lincoln creek cuts the southeastern corner and gives it a 
broad stretch of most excellent valley land. With the small 
tributaries it furnishes a good system of drainage to a large 
part of the lands; however in the southwestern portion, it 
is a vast level plain, with an occasional swamp. The lands 
are mostly of very superior quality and is well improved with 
nice dwellings, great barns, orchards, etc. 

The township is traversed by the main line of the B. & 
M, R. R. where, at all times of the day or night, long trains 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA • 251 

of cars enliven the scene. Tamora, the station, is a neat 
little village where may be found several good stores, a'great 
lumber yard, three elevators, two commodius churches, a 
good high school building, etc. 

The tirst homestead entry was made in 1864, on what is 
known as the Rev. E. W. Johnson farm, on Sec. 24. He 
built a log cabin on the claim but never moved to it. Thomas 
Skillman was the first settler on Sec. 13, in the spring of 
1865. Geo. and Russel Rogers and their widowed mother 
made settlement in the fall of 1866. D. H. Pigard, James 
Anderson, Charles and Joseph Thurman and Abram Wallick 
made settlement in the spring of 1876. During the spring 
of 1868, Geo. Slonecker, Sam Stevenson, Aaron and Allen 
Anderson, Mr. Shockey and Thos. Osborne came. The first 
school was taught in the summer of 1868 in the old cabin on 
the Johnson place. The first church organization was effected 
by Rev. Johnson at the Slonecker school house, date not 
given. In 1869 and 1878 droves of new people came and 
scores of homesteads were taken. 

Tamora was surveyed into lots in 1879 and that fall J. 
W. Scott built a small grain house, put in a set of scales and 
commenced the grain trade and Wm. Butler opened a small 
store. P. G. Tyler made the first home in the new town. 
Growth was slow at first. Morisey Bros, built an elevator 
in 1881 and T. W. Lowrey built one in 1882. The first school 
was opened in the spring of 1884. The Presbyterian people 
organized in 1880 and bought a small building and used it 
until the new cliurcn edifice was built in 1882. The church 
was dedicated November 9, 1883. The M. E. church was 
built in 1882. The present commodious two story frame 
school house was erected in 1886 at a cost of $2100. A 
graded school is maintained and is flourishing. 

At the present writing, Tamora is a beautiful busy village 
of about three hundred people. Tamora has always been 
free from the curse of saloons. They throw their surplus 
energy into beautifying their homes and maintaining their 
schools and churches. Tamora is a genial home place within 
a few minutes ride of the city, where society is excellent and 
the fumes of the grog shop are unknown. 

"F" township contains two hundred and forty-six farms 



252 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

or sub-divisions of land. There are eight school districts in- 
cluding one graded school with an enrollment of 211 scholars. 



G PRECINCT 

"G" precinct is located in town 11, range 3 east, was 
first settled, so far as is definitely known, by Wm. Wymore 
on Sec. 8 and Mr. Olmstead on Sec. 17. This was in the 
summer of 1863. These men had deserted from the Union 
army and the Provo marshall was on their trial. Mr. Wy- 
more sold his claim to W. W. Cox and Olmstead abandoned 
his and later the land was entered by John Roberts, Sr. R. 
T. Gale had homesteaded on Sec. 21 as early as January 2, 
1863, but did not move to his claim until the spring of 1864, 
when at about the same time Hon. Wm. Imlay and also his 
father David Imlay and family came and took claims on Sec. 
15. Wm. Imlay located on Sec. 18. E. L. Ellis had entered 
by government warrant, a quarter on Sec. 18 as early as the 
summer 1861 and through the help of Joel Mason of Lan- 
caster county, Geo. Hilton, of Cincinnati, entered a part of 
Sec. 21 in 1862. W. W. Cox homesteaded in March, 1864, 
but did not move to claim until December 1st. Lewis Moftitt 
visited the locality in the winter of 1864 and 1865 and entered 
three eighties on the northwest of Sec. 21, the future town 
site of Seward and moved to the settlement in July 1865. 

In the spring of 1865, Richard Sampson homesteaded on 
Sec. 17 and John N. Roberts on Sees. 19 and 20. Rev. E. 
L. Clark visited the locality in October 1865 and moved to 
his claim in the spring of 1866. In the spring of 1866 J. C. 
Sampson, John Roberts, Sr., and E. L. Ellis came and later 
in the season James A. Brown. In the summer of 1864, 
Father Dunaway located on Sec. 3, but died shortly after- 
wards and the family occupied the land in 1865. In 1866 J. 
P. Duncan, Stites Woqley, Roger Cooper, E. B. Shafer came 
and also Wm. Cooper. Homesteads in their order were R. 
T. Gale 1st, Stites Wooley 2nd, W. W. Cox 3rd, Father Dun- 
away 4th D. P. Imlay 5th, Wm. Imlay 6th, Grandpa David 
Imlay Hh, Richard Sampson 8th, J. N. Roberts 9th, Thos. 
Dunaway 10th and Joseph Imlay 11th. 

Incidents of the early history of this precinct are so thor- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 253 

oughly set forth in other pages of this work and the valuable 
historic letters of James A. Brown and Mrs. Sarah Anderson 
that we will not deal further with it. The present precinct 
is now exclusive of the city of Seward. It contains two 
hundred and ninety-eight farm or sub-divisions of land. It 
has four school districts, each with good frame buildings, 
with one hundred thirty-nine scholars enrolled. We would 
say that Dist. No. 9, Seward district, takes in a large amount 
of territory outside the city limits and that district alone has 
an enrollment of 701 scholars. The precinct is a grand good 
one. It has a vast amount of valley land, as Plum creek and 
Lincoln creek form junctions with the river within its 
borders. The land is nearly all slightly undulating and well 
drained. There was quite an amount of natural timber along 
the streams. There is no rough land within its borders. 
Prom the river bottoms the land rises in gentle slopes. The 
farms are generally well improved and very valuable. The 
precinct has three lines of railway, with about twenty miles 
of track. It is cut by the main line of the B. & M. from east 
to west, by the A. & N. branch from northwest to southeast 
and the Northwestern from the northeast to the southwest. 



H PRECINCT 

"H" precinct, or township 11, range 4 east, is one of 
the eastern townships, and situated on the head of the north 
fork of Middle creek. It is rolling land, with numerous 
springs and bright running streams, many of them fringed 
with nice young timber. The settlement is largely German. 
The first settler was Lewis Leibrock, on his present farm 
near the stone church. Conrad Grant and Deidrick Brant 
settled soon afterwards. Andrew Shultz, Wm. Luber, Gill- 
man Garland, B. W. Walker, Fritz Ropke, and Wm. Leppe 
made settlement in 1868, and in 1869 Chris. Thomas and 
Jacob Thomas, John Westerhoif, and C. C Davis; also Chas. 
Ruchtassel made settlement just at the edge of the plain on 
the west side of the precinct; also Henry Petrie and John 
Ohlwiler. 

The first school was organized in 1869, with Wolsey Wy- 
ant, L. Leibrock, and Conrad Grant as school officers. They 



254 ' HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

erected a school house on section 28, and Thos. Cowen taught 
the first term. The second school house was built in 1873, in 
district No. 32, and Mrs. J. P. Loose, then Miss Kate Miller, 
taught the first term. The stone church, of which we give 
elsewhere a history, was built under the pastorate of Rev. 
Theo Gruber, in 1872, valued at $3,000. The Lutheran society 
laid out a cemetery in 1H68, on the farm of Mr. Leibrock. 
July 14, 1869. The two sons of Conrad Grant were killed by 
lightning, and these were the first deaths in the precinct. 
, Charlie Grant was the first child born in the settlement, 
in 1868. 

The Midland railroad was built through the precinct in 
1873, and Germantown was laid into lots in 1874, by Hiland 
Praszier. P. Bick opened the first store. John Westerhoff 
was appointed postmaster. Charles Howland opened the 
second store in 1878. The first frame house was built in the 
precinct by Conrad Grant, in 1876. 

This precinct is pre-eminently a dairy region and the peo- 
ple have made a success in that line as the history of the 
Germantown creamery will readily show. The eastern part 
of the township was first settled by Geo. W. Lowley, Henry 
and John Beckman, and Mr. Koch in 1870. The three latter 
families yet reside at the old homesteads surrounded with 
plenty of this world's goods with elegant homes. 

The township contains one beautiful village of near three 
hundred souls situate on the edge of the great upland plain 
near the north-west corner of the precinct. • It contains two 
large elevators and many good business houses with a good 
hotel and bank, with a fine high school building and three 
churches. It is a great shipping point. It has one of the 
most successful creameries in the state (see its history). The 
precinct has two hundred and sixty-two farms or subdivisions 
of land. There is one graded school and five others all 
with good buildings; scholars enrolled are 247. 

"H" is a properous and wealthy precinct if the lands 
are rough. 

I PRECINCT 

"I" precinct is located in town 10, range 4, east of the 6th 
P. M. The western part of this precinct is on the great 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 255 

plain between the Blue river and the Middle creek breaks, 
where are many splendid farms; but the greater part of the 
precinct is rolling hills with plenty of running- streams and 
many excellent springs. There are many stony points. 
The little valleys are exceedingly fertile' and are well im- 
proved; the lands are largely occupied by a very thrifty 
class of Germans, and they have become independent, nearly 
all having pleasant homes. The lands are well adapted to 
dairying and poultry raising. Many groves of native tim- 
ber adorn the valleys. The precinct has but about three 
miles of railway, but has a good station at Pleasant Dale. 
The w'estern portion is very handy to both Seward and Mil- 
ford, while the eastern portion is only twelve miles from the 
capital. The township has two hundred and lifty-two farms 
or subdivisions of land. They have five school districts all 
supplied with pretty good frame buildings, including one 
graded school, with an enrollment of two hundred seventy 
pupils. (See "Pleasant Dale.") 

PLEASANT DALE 

In the beautiful little valley of Middle Creek in the 
southern part of "I" town stands the village that is so 
properly named. This valley was beautiful when a wilder- 
ness, when the herds that grazed and fattened on the luxur- 
iant meadows in their native wildness were the elk, ante- 
lope and buffalo, and the only sign of human habitation was 
the curling smoke of the distant wigwam. Thus we have 
seen it in 18o2. How much more beautiful is it now since 
the hand of civilized man has transformed it and made it to 
blossom out in all its present grandeur. It is all checked up 
into farms of transcendent wealth with hundreds of tasty 
dwellings surrounded with groves and orchards, splendid 
meadows and great stretches of waving fields of corn. Oh! 
how it gladdens the heart of the old pioneer as he stands 
upon an eminence and beholds the transformation wrought 
in forty-two years. Now instead of the whoop of the wild 
man in the chase may be seen the thousands of cattle graz- 
ing peacefully on the hills, while the screeching of the iron 
horse with his thundering tread is rushing up and down the 
valleys drawing in his great train innumerable blessings to 



256 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

mankind. Suvoly we may exclaim in the language of the 
poet prophet, "Thy hght has come and the glory of God is 
risen upon thee." 

Among the honored names of those who first founded 
this settlement are James Her, Abram Courtright and Steven 
Brown. 

Upon the opening of the steam wagon road in 1864, this 
valley became better known to the world, and when the war 
closed in 1865, people began to have faith in Nebraska, and 
slow but surely settlement began. It took some years to 
convince people that this was not a desert land, and that it 
sometimes did rain west of Salt Creek. 

A history of the struggles of the pioneer settlers is the 
same old story, only with variations; long and weary jour- 
neys to mill, to the city, of camping out nights, of weary 
waiting and watching, of Indian scares and depredations, of 
poverty, want, and destitution, fighting i^rairie fires, and 
contending with grasshoppers and hot winds, living in dug- 
outs and log cabins. But those days are happily past and 
now, speaking in vulgar parlance, these people who braved 
all the dangers and hardships are "strictly in it." This is 
today a country of wealth and luxury, with beautiful homes 
and grand o])portunities, with the railroad, telegraph, and a 
telephone in hundreds of country homes, and a rural deliv 
ery box at nearly every farmer's door. 

The A. & N. railroad was built in 1879 and the station 
of Pleasant Dale was established soon thereafter. In 1883 
Mr. J. H. Merrill and Thomas Best laid out a townsite on 
parts of the n. e. i and the s. e. i of sec. 35, town 9, range 
4, east. A small store was opened. A post office established 
at James Iler's in the early seventies was moved to the new 
town, and thus the nucleus of the village was formed. The 
school known as the Happel school, Dist. No. 21, was one 
and one-half miles distant, but was moved to the village in 
about 1885. 

The first school in the village was taught by Miss Belle 
Caruthers in the year 1885. She is now Mrs. A. H. Merrill. 
J. R. Burd opened the first store. The Methodist people 
built a church edifice in 1883. In 1898 the enterprising citi- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 257 

zeiis built a public hall of no mean proportions. A fine and 
capacious hotel was erected in 1902. 

Now the villasje contains two hundred and fifty people, 
four mixed stores, two hardware establishments, a good ele- 
vator, a first class livery barn and plenty of other shops, a 
fine and commodious school building with capacity for one 
hundred and twenty-five pupils. They have two telephone 
systems, a well established bank, a money order office, and 
only thirty minutes from the county seat and a like distance 
from the capital. It is an ideal village, located on a sightly 
little hill, with a nice park, splendid water and surrounded 
by beautiful scenery. It is a splendid place for a quiet 
home. Lots are cheap, and the best of all it is among an 
enterprising, thrifty, intelligent and sociable people. 



J PRECINCT 

"J" precinct is located in town 10, R. 3 east of the 6th P. 
M. This precinct is one of the oldest settled portions of the 
county. Daniel Morgan and his sons Louis and Thomas set- 
tled near the present town of Ruby in the spring of 1861, and 
were the first permanent settlers in the North Blue valley 
and the second families to make permanent homes in the 
county. Job T. Reynolds, Samuel Long, J, C. Neihardt and 
T. L. Rogers settled in the same neighborhood in the spring 
of 1863. The Reynolds family and Grandmother Long yet 
live on the old homesteads; all the rest have gone to their 
long home except Louis Morgan. He lives in Missouri. 

"J" township occupies a rather central position in the 
county. The river runs through it furnishing quite an 
amount of timber and plenty of water power although it yet 
remains undeveloped. Both the east and west portions are 
on the table land. Nearly every acre of it is excellent 
farming land. The drainage is good. 

The railroad runs centrally through it from northwest to 
southeast giving it one station at Ruby which is but a hamlet 
with two elevaters, two small stores, post-office, etc. Sew- 
ard is the principal trading point although some of its trade 
goes to Milford. The precinct is well settled in all its parts, 
and is rich in all the varied products of our locality. There 



258 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

are two hundred and seventy-three farms or sub-divisions of 
land. They have five school districts, each with a commodi- 
ous frame house, with an enrollment of 294 scholars. 

The precinct is well supplied with rural routes from 
Seward and Milford, while the rural telephone systems are 
being extended to every nook and corner. 

K PRECINCT 

Town 10 north, range 2 east of the 6th P. M. is a magniti- 
cent tract of farming land with one hundred and ninety-eight 
farms or sub-divisions of land. It is a great plam just slight- 
ly undulating. The farms are nearly all well improved with 
excellent houses and great barns, with orchards and beauti- 
ful yards. The people seem prosperous and happy. They 
have four school houses with 254 scholars enrolled. There 
is about seven miles of railroad and one village, Goehner, 
which is a good shipping point, containmg three grain eleva- 
tors, three good well supplied merchantile houses and one 
hardware house; several substantial brick two story busi- 
ness houses, a plendid school in a modern two story struct- 
ure, three church edifices and a town hall, a good bank, 
depot, etc., together with a goodly number of cozy resi- 
dences. The village was laid out in the autumn of 1887, and 
contains about one hundred and twenty-five people, with 
some wide-awake business men at the head. Goehner is well 
situated for trade, being surrounded by farms just as good as 
can be found in the' world, which are owned and occupied by 
some of Nebraska's best people. 

Settlement began in this prairie wilderness in 1869 when 
Geo. Perkins, Andrew Perkins, Peter Oglevy, and Abram 
Windsor unloaded their prairie schooners, and transferred 
their families and goods to the soddies and began building 
homes. Uncle Peter Oglevy and Uncle Abe Windsor have 
finished their work and gone to their reward. Andrew Perk- 
ins has left us for the sunny south and only Geo. Perkins 
remains of the sixty-niners, except widow Graul. In 1870 
A. C. Miller, C. C. Tunecliff, K. B. A. Bonnam, Peter M. 
Johnson and Ed. Jensen and Allison and Martin Madsonand 
perhaps a few others came to help subdue the wilderness. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 259 

The first school was opened in 1873 in a sod college and 
was taught by Miss Lotta Hillery at mound prairie. There 
were many pathetic scenes in pioneer days in this little set- 
tlement, some of which will be told in historic letters in 
these pages. 

The post-office was established in 1888 with Chas. Brock- 
way P. M. Chas. Matzke is the present post-master. The 
records of the office were burned and we are unable to secure 
much information in regard to it. Money order office estab- 
lished in an early day. 



L PRECINCT 

Town 10, range 1, east, was first settled by John E. 
Fouse, at the crossing of Beaver creek, in 1862, when he 
opened a ranch on the old freight road. Mr. Fouse lived 
here many years in a sort of rough-and-tumble way, trading 
with travelers and Indians. The writer was at his place in 
1864, and at that time the ranch was kept in an immense 
dug-out on the bank of the creek. There were a great many 
tough stories told in connection with this ranch in the pio- 
neer days, but we will not reiterate them, as we are hardly 
able to vouch for their truthfulness. Mr. Fouse was a pe- 
culiar character, and his place became somewhat famous for 
many tragic events there enacted. Whiskey was an import- 
ant article of trade at the ranch . 

Thos. Tisdale opened his little store and the postoffice 
in 1869, and Mr. Donovan also settled in the neighborhood 
about the same time. The real substantial settlement began 
in 1870 when tlie prairies began to be homesteaded. Widow 
Foster built the first frame house in April. Thomas Foster 
and his widowed mother and F. M. Horton made a settle- 
ment shortly afterwards. In 1871 there were a great many 
who made settlement. The first school of which we can 
learn was taught by John Tui'ner, on what was known as 
the Norman (Jassler farm, in the summer of 1873. While 
"L" is one of our foremost farming precincts, it has no rail- 
road and no village within its borders, but is happily situ- 
ated, convenient to four stations on two different railroads, 
and has a choice of markets within an hour's drive from any 



260 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

point. The southwestern portion is somewhat rough but 
the lands are good. The other and larger portion is as fine 
farming land as can be found anywhere. The precinct has 
the choice of Utica, Tamora, Goehner, and Beaver Crossing 
for market places, and the farthest farm does not exceed 
six miles from a station. 

The precinct contains two hundred and thirty-five farms 
or sub-divisions of land; it has five school districts each with 
a good frame school house and an enrollment of one hundred 
and ninety-one pupils. Rural routes from Beaver Crossing 
and Utica supply the people with their daily mail, while the 
'phone bell rings in a large portion of the homes. 

M PRECINCT 

Town 9, range 1, east of the 6th P. M., is the south- 
western precinct. It was traversed by the old freight road. 
In 1862, Daniel Millspaw opened a ranch just west of where 
Beaver Crossing now stands, where Mrs. Thompson now re- 
sides. In 1863, John Leonard established his ranch a little 
farther west. Mr. Buzzard settled just northeast of the 
present village in 1865. Columbus Clark and G. Clark 
settled just southeast of the Ross Nichols place and about 
the same time Phillip Michaels located on the Migatt farm. 
Ross Nichols came in 1869 and located on a portion of the 
townsite and soon after platted a small portion of his land 
and named it Nicholsville. Smith and Ingalls opened a little 
store in 1871 and Mr. Smith built the flouring mill that season. 
At this time Thomas Tisdale had a little store at John E. 
Fouse's ranch at the crossing of the Beaver creek in the 
corner of "L" precinct. Mr.Tisdale had secured a post office 
which was supplied by a star route. Mail was carried on 
a broncho and was weekly; some said it was a weakly affair. 
Mr. Tisdale wanted to get nearer the mill and he moved his 
store, postottice and all, including the name Beaver Crossing, 
and that is how they beat the beavers out of their crossing. 

The new town was rather a dull, sleepy cross-road place 
for many years with a couple of stores, a blacksmith shop, 
a small hotel and doctor's oflice, and so it remained until the 
spring of 1887, when the building of the F. E. & M. V. R. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 261 

R. was assured, when it awoke to a new life, which is more 
thoroughly set forth in other pages of this work. 

"M" precinct is more fortunate in that it has two rail- 
road stations within its boarders. In the southwest corner, 
largely through the influence of Benjamin Hunkins, the 
railroad folks located a station and namrd it Hunkins, and a 
neat little village sprang up. When the post office matter 
came up for sttlement the government would not adopt the 
name as there was in the state another office of so nearly 
the same name, so the village was re-named Cordova. 

Cordova, at this writing, is a brisk village of about 200 
people, with a good supply of business houses; two elevators, 
bank, two churches, a tine school house and many neat resi- 
dences. The town draws trade from Fillmore and York 
counties, and is in a flourishing condition. It is surrounded 
by a well developed and rich farming community. 

"M" precinct is divided into two voting precincts. 
South Blue river traverses the precinct from the northwest 
to the eastward and southward a.nd furnishes an abundant 
water power. The drainage is very good. Indian and 
Johnson creeks traverse the south portion and Beaver creek 
cuts the northwest corner. There is quite an amount of 
natural timber along these streams. As is fully noted else- 
where, there are about four hundred flowing wells in this 
valley which are of great value. There are seven miles of 
railroad, seven school districts, each with good substantial 
buildings, with two graded schools, an enrollment of 515. 
There are 234 farms or sub- divisions of land. 

The farms in the valley are the highest priced farms in 
the country, the flowing wells tell the story. It is the great 
potato fleld of Nebraska. This precinct has become im- 
mensely rich and prosperous within a few years. 



N PRECINCT 

Town 9, range 2, east of 6th principal meridian is old 
historic ground. It was crossed by the old freight roads. 
The first one that was opened via old Camden in 1860 and 
later in 1864 by the steam wagon road via Milford. These 
roads made their intersection at or near Walnut creek ranch. 



262 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

The first settlers to make permanent homes were Jesse 
R. Johnson and David Barton in 1864. Samuel Englehaupt 
also homesteaded that year. At first "N" precinct was a 
part of Walnut creek precinct. In 1865 the Campbell fam 
ilies homesteaded, also a Mr. Cooper. In 1869 P. J. Good- 
rich and Hiram Brisbin took homesteads. The first lumber 
used in the construction of a house was by P. J. Goodrich 
in 1870 on what is now the Roth farm. He hauled lumber 
from the Missouri river and sided up a log cabin. Mrs. 
Goodrich taught the first school in 1870 on the home farm. 
The first school meeting was held in Hi Brisbin's sod house 
in 1870. That is now district No. 23. 

■ The first and only post office in the county was named 
Norval and as near as we can learn, was estabhshed on a 
Star route in about 1872. The precinct now has no post of- 
fice, but is well covered by rural routes from the various 
stations in close proximity. The South Blue river cuts the 
precinct, and its broad valley is beautiful and rich. It 
contains many flowing wells. The first flowing wells of the 
county were on what w^as known as the Chris Lezenby 
farm on section 8. As near as we can learn, the second well 
obtained was on 'the W. W. Pierce homestead just a short 
distance to the south of the river and near what is now 
knowm as the flowing well school house in district No. 24. 
The precinct is a most excellent agricultural region, and 
well covered with nicely improved farms. Walnut creek 
cuts the northwestern portion and in that region the land is 
somewhat broken, but the mass of the territory is slightly 
undulating prairie with sufficient drainage. There are two 
hundred and sixty-six farms or sub-divisions of land. There 
are six substantial frame school houses with an enrollment of 
303 scholars. Present population is about 1500. The pre- 
cinct has no village or railroad, but is situated so that ship- 
ping points and places of trade are handy to all the people. 
Those of the eastern portion have Milford right at the door. 
The western portion is handy to Beaver Crossing and Goeh- 
ner and the southern portion has Dorchester and Friend 
close at hand, while Seward is not far aw^ay, with excel- 
lent roads. Altogether "N" is a rich and prosperous pre- 
cinct. Nearly every farm has its orchard. Every modern 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 263 

convenience of farm life blesses the homes of most of the peo- 
ple; the mail box at the door and the telephone is a fixture 
with the masses of the people. On the old Samuel Engle- 
haupt farm is an old historic elm tree, probably one of the 
largest on the South Blue river. This oJd tree was made 
noted in 1860, when Uncle Tomy West first came co the 
county. He lived some miles down the river. The Indians 
had fallen out with Uncle Tomy and captured him one even- 
ing and tied him to this great tree and for some reason un- 
explained, left him tied for the night. The old man ex- 
pected to be burned or massacred in some way, but some 
how he got loose and made good his escape in the darkness 
and thus spoiled the play. It was our fortune a short time 
ago to gaze upon that tree and as the mind wandered back 
over the years and the many incidents that transpired in 
that region, we felt that we were treading upon holy ground. 
For many thrilling scenes that occured in that locality, 
the reader is referred to I. M. K. Johnson's letter on another 
page. 



O PRECINCT 

Town 9, range 3, east of the 6th P. M. is peculiarly his- 
toric ground, but as many of the stirring events of the early 
settlements have been fully noted on other pages of this* 
w^ork, there remains but little to be said here of its first set- 
tlement. However it may be noticed that the first families 
of the county found homes within its borders, namely, the 
Wests. It has been the scene of thrilling incidents. The 
first great freight road via Camden crossed the precinct in 
1860, but there was no ranch planted within its borders un- 
til the steam wagon road was opened in 1864 by that prince 
of frontiersmen, J. L. Davison, which is fully noted else- 
where. 

The township is most happily situated so that it takes 
in a large sweep of both the north and the south forks of 
the river, furnishing it most ample water power and a large 
stretch of valley land with quite an amount of natural tim- 
ber and most beautiful scenery. Prom the start the pre- 
cinct enjoyed quite a rapid growth. The first mill of the 



264 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

county was erected at West's Mills, which was a joy to all 
the people of this vast region. The township may also be 
noted as having the first permanent village of the county, 
and for many years had the largest pupulation of any in the 
county, and also that it enjoyed having the county seat four 
years. It also enjoys having at the present time a block of 
farms in its western portion which are noted far and wide as 
the best lot of farms in the western states in one solid block. 

The township may also be noted for having two promi- 
nent state institutions. There is but a very limited amount 
of railroad track but it enjoys a station where an immense 
amount of business is transacted. It has one of the largest 
cereal mills of the state. Milford, its village, is carefully 
discussed elsewhere. The greater part of the township is 
located upon the great plateau. Between the two rivers and 
this region is a vast garden full of orchards and lovely 
homes where peace and plenty dwells. The township contains 
two hundred and thirty-four farms or sub-divisions of land. 
It has seven school districts with six commodious frame 
buildings and one two-story brick with one first-class graded 
school with a total enrollment of 566 scholars. 

The banks of the Blue are a vast play ground where 
thousand of people spend their outings every summer, ram- 
bling in the shady dells, bathing in the waters, boating on 
the great pond, fishing in the streams and drinking of the 
medicinal waters and enjoying the hospitality of a noble 
people. 

It is a feast for the soul to stand upon an eminence and 
view the beautiful valley with the windings of the grand 
river as it sweeps by the Queen of Beauty that nestles in 
the shade of the ten thousand trees planted by the hand of 
man. 

Milford has much to be proud of, and if her wide-awake 
people will grasp the opportunities within her reach she 
will have a grand future. 

P PRECINCT 

Town 9, range 4, east of sixth principal meridian, is the 
southeast corner precinct of the county. It is one of the old 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 265 

historical spots of all this western region. Just by the con- 
fluence of the north and south rivers at the county line a 
bridge was built in 1860 by Nebraska City enterprise and the 
great overland freight road was opened. That saved freight- 
ers and emigrants to the mountain region many weary miles 
of travel as previous to this they had to follow the windings 
of the Platte around the great ox bow bend. The first set- 
tler so far as we can learn was J. L. Davidson. He opened a 
ranch half a mile west of the bridge in the spring of 1862, 
and some time in the same summer A. J. Wallingford opened 
one at the bridge just by the county line of Saline coanty. 
Victor Vifquain had made settlement some time previous, 
and also Mr. Stanton had located in the edge of Saline coun- 
ty. A little later old Mr. Bingamen and James Johnson 
located in the neighborhood. 

The great trains of ox and mule teams with their burdens 
of freight and the tens of thousands of emigrants swarming 
across the plains made the Camden bridge a place of great 
note. 

The most gifted pen has never yet been able to fully 
describe the motley mass of humanity that traversed this 
great highway of traffic. 

At times, and the times were frequent, when looking to 
the eastward a vast throng of people with all sorts of convey- 
ances would be winding their way down the great hills and 
sweeping past the ranches and stretching away to the west- 
ward just as far as the eye could reach. It is not overstat- 
ing the case to say more than a thousand teams of one kind 
and another would be within sight at a time. The great 
freight trains of oxen, six yoke to the wagon and twenty-six 
great prairie schooners in a train would be the central ligare. 
Then would come a great mule train with six stalwart well 
coparaisoned mules to a wagon, with from eight to ten thou- 
sand pounds of freight to the wagon. Then the innumerable 
throng of emigrants with all sorts of vehicles from an ox 
cart or cow team and old wagon to the gilded carriage. Folks 
on horseback and many on foot, with an occasional caravan 
of Mormons, with all their wierd and curious belongings. 

Generally at night immense camps of these people would 
be gathered at the ranches and trade in food stuffs, grain 



266 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

and hay would be brisk. The surface of "P" town is unlike 
that of its western sisters. North Blue river cuts the south- 
western corner, but the south river does not touch the pre- 
cinct while it empties into the main stream within a feXv rods 
of its borders. It has but a small corner of valley land. In 
the northwest corner there is a broad plateau between the 
Blue river and Middle creek brakes, which is covered with 
nice attractive farms, but to the eastward and southward the 
land is cut by Middle creek and the land is rolling and with 
many stony points. Notwithstanding this there are many 
excellent and valuable farms. Some years ago gold was dis- 
covered on the farm of J. S. Dillenbeck. This for a time 
created much excitement. Mr. Dillenbeck spent much time, 
energy and money iri investigating and developing this find 
and claims to have demonstrated the fact that there was vast 
sums of gold there, but by any present known means, from 
lack of water it cannot be made to pay the cost of obtaining 
it. So the mine is destined to remain unworked until some 
future genius determines the way of developing it. In the 
eastern part of the precinct there are quarries of stone with 
springs of excellent water and many running brooks. It is 
excellent pasture and meadow land. There are many groves 
of native timber along the streams. Thei'e are about four 
miles of railroad in the precinct, but no village or station 
at present, although it was the home of one of the oldest 
villages in the county. Camden on the Blue at one time as- 
pired to be the principal city of the Blue valley. The Burl- 
ington company had made their first survey of the Denver 
line through it and it was expected tnat Camden would be a 
city. Parker and Roper erected a flouring mill and a very 
good one in 1H66 and laid out a town site. William Buchanan 
opened the first store there of the county and was honored 
by being our first postmaster. The village grew apace and 
was a quite lively little town, but fates were against it. The 
railroad abandoned their survey. High waters washed away 
the mill dam. The owners became discouraged and aban- 
doned the property, and Camden witn all its bright prospects 
became a thing of the past. Hopes were revived again about 
seventeen years ago, when the Burlington folks secured the 
right of way and graded a road from Milford to Crete, but 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



26'; 



somehow the company ran out of rails or something was the 
matter. The road was not completed. Precinct "P" had the 
first postolfice and about the first village and now has neither. 
The people are however all handy to market towns, Milford, 
Pleasant Dale and Denton are within easy reach and rural 
routes furnish the mail at nearly every door. At old Cam- 
den is one of the best water powers on the river, with good 
rock bottom. It seems sad that so many brip-ht prospects 
which this historic field possessed, should be blighted . There 
are within its borders two hundred and fifty farms or sub-di- 
visions of land. 

They have seven school districts including No. 1 — each 
with creditable frame buildings with an enrollment of 226 
scholars. 



PERSONAL PROPERTY ASSESSMENT 

In order to get an approximate value, these figures must 
be multiplied by five. 

Seward, Neb., July 22, 1905. 
Mr. W. W. Cox, 

Dear Sir: — 

Enlosed you will find total assessment by pre- 
cincts and town. 

A precinct 128,608 00 

B " 40,469 00 

C " 43,107 20 

D " 37,392 00 

E " 39,095 30 

F " 40,969 00 

G " 86,127 00 

H " 42,447 00 

I " 39,014 00 

J " 53,621 94 

K " 55,617 00 

L " .' 36,074 00 

M " 44,18100 

N " 41,656 00 

O " 52,917 00 

P *' 37,386 00 



268 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Towns and Villages 

Beaver Crossing 38,360 00 

Cordova • 15,458 47 

Tamora 15,938 00 

Utica 45,679 11 

Staplehurst 17,651 00 

Milford 36,683 00 

Pleasant Dale 20,882 00 

Germantown 22,460 00 

Bee ; 13,802 51 

Seward City 217,418 00 

$1,164,993 36 
Raised by Equalization Board 8,305 00 

Personal Total Assessed Value $1,173,298 36 
Report furnished by H. E. Baker, County Assessor. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Diaiy of E. L. Ellis — Diary of Hon. Thomas (iiaham — Monej- paid 
teachers in 1887 — Directors of districts and money paid teachers in 
1904 — Location of districts and school houses of county — Water and 
water co\irses and latitude— Fourth of July 1868 at Seward — Fourth 
of July 1876, at Seward — First white child born in county — Politics 
of the county — Indian episode. 



FROM E, L, ELLIS' DAIRY, KEPT IN 1859 TO 1861 

Mr. E. landed in Nebraska on May 12, 1859, and on May 
17th we find him and party on the Nemaha creek, near where 
Palmyra stands, which is described as a wild country with 
howling wolves. He finds in all that county just one deserted 
cabin. He says the roads leading to Nebraska City are lined 
with an innumerable host of returning Pike's Peakers. Was 
favorably impressed with the quality of lands. Party arrived 
at the house of A. J. Wallingford, on Salt creek, on the 
17th. The party, consisting of E. L. Ellis, A. J. Wallingford, 
F. C. Simpson, Wm. Jones, and C L. Barrett, visited Blue 
river on June 10th. Their way led across the rough land 
along Haines branch and South Middle creek, and except a 
drove of deer they saw nothing to please tliem until they 
reached the Blue valley. We infer by the time they were 
traveling that they struck Blue river somewhere between 
Old Camden and Milford. At six o'clock they reached an 
improvement that w^as commenced on the farm of A. J. 
Rogers, and was occupied by a Mr. Norton. The party 
camped at the mouth of a branch putting into the river, 
which we infer was Plum creek. On the eleventh they trav- 
ersed the table-lands east of Plum creek, and were well 
pleased with the country. He mentions the old town site at 
the junction of creek with river. Party saw one wolf and ten 
elk. Mr. E. says he killed one of them. They camped on 
ground where Mr. E. claims to have camped a year before. 

Mr. Ellis was left alone at camp a day without ammuni- 



270 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

tion, and says it was blue enoup^h, twenty-tive or thirty miles 
from settlement. Three elk came within two hundred yards 
of camp. June 13th, worked on his claim, which is by the 
present iron bridge. Returned to Salt creek on the 14th, 
and learned that live hundred Cheyennes and Arapahoes had 
passed on their way to butcher the Pawnee tribe. The set- 
tlers at Salt creek are fearful that these Indians will rob and 
kill them as the^^ return, and are preparing fortifications, 
and had also sent spies to watch the movements of the red- 
skins. This scare continued until the 19th. August 4th, 
Mr. Ellis rode a stray mule to Rock Bluffs, sixty miles, for 
a doctor, and carried cold johnny cake in his pocket to eat. 

September 4th it is noted that nearly everybody in set- 
tlement is sick. Mr. E. visited Blue river again in Novem- 
ber, and he camped on Plum creek on the 3d; was huntmg 
that day. Next we find him building a little hou.se on his 
claim. The company saw, on the 6th, near three hundred 
elk, and killod one that netted 500 pounds. 

On the 11th two men were attacked by live hundred 
Indians, and taken prisoners, held one day, robbed of all 
they had except their guns, which were given back to them, 
and they were charged by the brave Pawnees to never come 
to Blue river again. 

Salt creek, Christmas day, and no snow, warm and pleas- 
ant, roads dusty'. 

On the 22th of February a few Indians came and bought 
twelve bushels of corn, which six squaws carried three miles 
without resting. 

April 3d a terrible dust storm is noted. The atmosphere 
was fairly darkened by it. E^'earful prairie fires on the 12th, 
damaging the settlers greatly, and came very near burning 
a house where a dead man lay at the time. 

June 10th Mr. Ellis visited Blue river again, and had 
quite an experience ferrying Salt creek at the basin, as it 
was very high. Ferried over in the wagon box and pulled 
the gears over with ropes. 

On the 15th killed an elk and an elk calf. 

On the 16th found four head of stray cattle somewhere 
near the future site of Seward. The party also found an old 
wagon worth about $45, that had been abandoned. They 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 271 

found a settlement on the Blue, where . parties had planted 
forty acres of corn, but the record ^ives no names. 

On the 23d, went over to Jud^^e J. D. Maine's, on Stevens 
creek, and had the stray property appraised 

July 25th, killed a buck deer and tried to carry it to 
wagons nine miles distant, but failed. 

On the 28th our party got lost on the prairie, and laid 
out all nigiit. 

September 3d, was again on his claim. 

September 10, 1860, entered the claim. Soon after this 
Mr. E. returned to Missouri, where he found a wife and had 
some romantic experience with the intended father-in-law, 
who opposed the match. 

FROM THE DAIRY KEPT BY HON. THOMAS GRAHAM 

In July, 1858, while he was examining government sur- 
veys in Seward county and the counties surrounding it, we 
quote as follows: 

Thursday, July 1, 1858 — This day promises to be" rainy 
and disagreeable. We ran over to range line in town five, 
between ranges two and three, and one mile up north to 
town corner, which we did not quite reach on account of its 
getting too dark to see. 

July 4th — We are spending our 4th to-day in Sec. 1, 
town 5, R. 3 east. We have mulberry pie for dinner, which 
tastes nice. Day sunny and warm. 

July 13th--Camped in Sec. 34 or 35, town ten, range 3 
east. [This was probably about a mile from Milford.] 

July 14th — Spent the day examining town nine, range 
three. [This is O precinct.] 

July 15th — Examining town 13, range 3 [J precinct,] and 
discovered a small settlement on the east bank of the Blue, 
where we got some milk for supper. 

[Mr. G. , we regret to say, fails to give us the names of 
the settlers, but we suppose it was the McKinly and Morton 
families spoken of in another chapter of this work. It is 
barely possible that it was the Morgans. 

July 16th — Raining. Went up to T. 11, R. 3 [G precinct], 
and up as far north as T. 12. [The balance of this day's rec- 



272 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

ord is so badly effaced that we can not read it, but we de- 
cipher the word creek, which we understand to be our Plum 
creek.] 

Sunday iHth - Spent the day fishing in the Blue. [Sorry 
friend G. woukl tish on Sunday.] 

Mr. Graham tells us that he remembers that there were 
some towns site stakes near the mouth of Plum creek, but 
knows nothing of how they came there. These same stakes 
and two foundations were yet visible in February, 1864. 
They covered the slope in what is now Moffitt's pasture, 
north of tlie B. & M. road, and extended west to near the 
river at Boyes' mill. 

Later in the sfeason we tind Mr. Graham and party again 
in Seward county, and at that time they heard of the French 
settlement being formed at the forks of the Blue, but did not 
visit it. This was Vifquain settlement, just below the Saline 
county line. If Mr. G. had supposed that Seward county 
had so many honors in store for him, his notes would have 
been more elaborate, but we are thankful for small favors. 



SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY 

Below is the amount of money paid teachers in Seward 
county for the year ending July 11, 1887: 

Dist. Amount Dist. Amount 

1 $1(50 5U IS 26.-) 00 

2 220 00 10 215 00 

3 120 00 20....; 320 00 

4 388 00 21 - .. . 180 00 

5 (Mi If ord) 198500 22 21000 

6 304 00 23 425 00 

7 305 00 ■ 24 305 00 

8 180 00 25 307 00 

9 (Seward) 556100 26 275 00 

10 . 195 00 27 . 277 50 

11 280 00 28 340 00 

12 210 00 29 265 00 

13 220 (10 30 195 00 

14 360 00 31 247 50 

15 315 00 32 240 00 

16 210 00 33 218 00 

17 210 00 34 ! 233 00 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



278 



Dist. Amount 

35 180 00 

36 250 00 

37 240 00 

38 195 00 

39 300 00 

40 333 00 

41 335 00 

42 350 00 

43 259 00 

44 330 00 

45 105 00 

46 ^ 315 00 

47 290 00 

48. 221 00 

49 254 00 

50 210 00 

51 (Malcolm P. O. ) 531 00 

52 280 00 

53 260 00 

54 ."... 270 00 

55 227 50 

56 235 00 

57 225 00 

58... 294 00 

'59 304 00 

60 (Utica, all female 

teachers) 1395 00 

61 265 00 



Dist. Amount 
62.. 180 00 

63 200 00 

64 190 00 

65 142 00 

66 210 00 

67 210 00 

68 130 00 

69 . 210 00 

70 ISO 00 

71 260 00 

72 245 00 

73 197 00 

74 175 00 

75 84 00 



76 



78 



160 00 
200 00 
198 50 
260 00 
210 00 
305 00 



80 .-- 

81 

82 (Germantown) 345 00 

83 (Staplehui-st) 735 00 

84 ^ 257 50 

85 210 00 

86 - 245 00 

87 265 00 

88 - 156 00 

89 - 150 00 

90 .. 417 50 



The teachers employed are fully three-fourth ladies, and 
outside the city of Seward the wages are fully equal to that 
paid gentlemen. 



Following is a complete list of the directors of the sev- 
eral districts with the number of scholars and the amounts of 
money received from state apportionment in the year of 1904. 
Disbursements. May, $6649.92; December, 4003.21. 



Dii^ 


;. Director. 


Pupils. 


Amt. 






1 


C. Siedhoff 


32 1 


76.47 


two disbursements 




2 


A. J. Kremer 


42 


82.87 


two disbursements 




3 


B. F. Bremer 


51 


99.15 


two disbursements 




4 


Geo. L. Borden 


266 


406.55 


two disbursements. 


Beaver Cr 


5 


W. R. Trimble 


250 


390.81 


two disbursements. 


Milford 


6 


J. A. Diven 


68 


121.62 


two disbursements 




I*' 
1 


Fred Trahert 


60 


118.16 


two disbur.sements 





274 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Dis. Director. 


Pupils. 


Amt. 




8 


N. W. Heimer 


38 


1 77.07 


two 


9 


Dr. F. A. Marsh 


701 


1027. 62 


two 


10 


J. W. Figard. 


19 


56. 17 


two 


11 


H. L. Sampson 


18 


58. 28 


two 


12 


B. M. Hickman 


38 


89.25 


two 


13 


Carl Sheeper 


44 


105.96 


two 


14 


Neils Bjerrum 


76 


134.79 


two 


15 


C. E. Cassey 


34 


80.21 


two 


16 


R. W. Stull 


139 


87. 34 


two 


17 


R. G. Banks 


27 


73.76 


two 


18 


J. W. Conrad 


33 


82.33 


two 


19 


John Stehlick 


43 


81.55 


two 


20 


Israel Kesler 


34 


63.70 


two 


21 


E. J. Newton 


77 


133.56 


two 


22 


James Leger 


33 


74.37 


two 


23 


M. J. Eicher 


75 


128. 08 


two 


24 


W. M. Severns 


60 


114.63 


two 


25 


Thos. Moulding 


36 


76.87 


two 


26 


D. L. Francis 


39 


87.34 


two 


27 


Geo. Bowr, jr. 


107 


186. 05 


two 


28 


P. A. Terwilliger 


37 


83.60 


two 


29 


Sep Gribson 


42 


85.43 


two 


30 


Lewis Berry 


34 


78.45 


two 


31 


Aug. ochulz 


40 


85.24 


two 


32 


Jacob Koch 


21 


61.68 


two 


33 


Geo. Sass 


46 


89.38 


two 


34 


J. F. Ficke 


49 


90.12 


two 


35 


James Jensen 


28 


69. 90 


two 


36 


Gus Irmer 


41 


81.35 


two 


37 


Phil Kinneman 


23 


70. 72 


two 


38 


H. H. Lezatt 


36 


80.41 


two 


39 


Geo. Nelson 


25 


69. 16 


two 


40 


Geo. Gribble 


25 


61.20 


two 


41 


John McGinness 


75 


133.37 


two 


42 


A. C. Muir 


44 


98.89 


two 


43 


H. P. McCortney 


43 


80.67 


two 


44 


Grant Gore 


59 


118.51 


two 


45 


Elisha Pool 


'"•l 


104.45 


two 


46 


R. J. Jeary 


55 


111.92 


two 


47 


E. H. Strayer 


45 


100.32 


two 


48 


J. S. Dillenbeck 


45 


95. 02 


two 


49 


Jabez Berry 


69 


126.58 


two 


50 


E. M. Lingstrath 


37 


83. 33 


two 


51 


John Beckman 


60 


115.51 


two 


52 


H. H. Beckman 


57 


11,5.66 


two 


53 


J. W. Hannah 


41 


84. 89 


two 


45 


Wm. Mould 


51 


106.21 


two 



disbursements 

disbursements, Seward 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements > 

disbursements 

disbursements, Pl's'ntUale 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements, Goehner 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbursements 

disbunseinents 

disbursements 

disbursements 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



275 



Dis. Director. 


Pupils 


. Amt. 


55 


Wm. Barbee 


70 


$133. 31 


56 


Ole P. Peterson 


41 


88.43 


57 


Horace VValvin 


51 


105.33 


58 


Carl Eberpacker 


64 


122. 12 


59 


H. C. Wolfe 


67 


116.07 


m 


Chas Swartz 


211 


359.09 


61 


J. L. Blanchard 


42 


83.66 


62 


W. D. Lewis 


38 


87.68 


63 


Henry Dickey 


18 


58.28 


64 


Fred Ihde 


48 


98.41 


65 


F. L. Sterns 


28 


66.36 


66 


Henry Campbell 


35 


78.10 


67 


Elias Knight 


21 


61.67 


68 


Wra. Heers 


53 


108. 19 


69 


Albert McGrevv 


37 


73.88 


70 


Harvey Gannon 


46 


95.56 


71 


Martin VVillers 


45 


101.20 


72 


M. O. Tingsted 


29 


73.08 


73 


73 J. R. Staufer 


124 


201.46 


74 


Joseph Britt 


35 


71.92 


75 


VVm. Shultz 


38 


83.26 


76 


John Prochaska 


28 


70.78 


77 


Jacob Switzer 


23 


65.40 


78 


A. J. Anderson 


49 


95.41 


79 

80 


C. J. Cooper 
Discontinued 


29 


76.62 


81 


Perry Bradley 


18 


56.52 


82 


Lewis Meyers 


12 


192.76 


83 


Thos. Carr 


137 


227.94 


84 


Wm. Pathe 


46 


96.43 


85 


Michael Schmitt 


38 


78.84 


86 


Fred Beckman 


27 


75.53 


87 


John Dal ton 


68 


119.85 


88 


John Blackwood 


82 


149. 53 


89 


I. H. Darling 


27 


71.11 


90 


J. B. Hamilton 


87 


155.78 


91 


C. H. Tipton 


20 


40.41 


92 


F. H. Connelly 


26 


62.61 


93 


Harvey Church 


58 


115.32 



two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbuisements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 

two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements 
two disbursements Dist. with 

Butler Co. 
two disbursements 
two disbiirsements 
It will be noted in the above table that the amounts received by the 
districts was from the May and December apportionments. The num- 
ber of children given was from the December enrollments. The reader 
will observe that some districts appear by this table to have received 
more per capita than others. This comes by change in the enrollment 
from May to December. 



276 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



LOCATION OF SEWARD COUNTY SCHOOLS 



55 

43 

D 

36 44 


4' 15 

c 

70 
14 83 


91 
33 26 

B '•' 

67 

28 
12 


50 
68 

A 

13 

87 89 


54 

59 

E 

60 

57 


10 
66 63 

F 

74 

3" <)0 8 
40 
81 


69 

46 
11 

G 

9 

79 


51 
32 

H 

75 

85 ^o 


56 

42 

72 L 

53 
38 


30 

27 K 

58 
78 


31 

86 6 

49 


71 64 
I 
34 45 

21 


62 4 

M 

35 20 39 
88 61 


1,, « 
.. N , 

29 25 


73 

5 

o 

47 18 
o 92 84 


17 

^« 65 

P 

77 

76 
19 
1 



The above plat shows as nearly as may be the location 
of every school house in the county by numbers, the figures 
denoting the position of the buildings. We are indebted to 
Superintendent Koch for the above plat. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 277 

WATER AND WATER COURSES 

The drainage of the county is supphed by the following 
rivers and creeks: The west fork of the Blue river enters 
the county in section 30, in 'L" precinct, passes into "M" 
precinct, in section 4, and passes through it in the south- 
east course, enters "O" precinct in section 80, and crosses 
the Saline county line near the southeast corner of section 
32, and joins the North Blue just at the county line on the 
south line of section 32, in "P" precinct. Its principal tri- 
butaries are Johnson creek which rises in western Saline 
county, passes through "M" and "N" precincts, and joins 
with the river just at the county line. Beaver creek passes 
through the southern portion of York county and through 
"L" and joins the main stream just west of the village of 
Beaver Crossing in "M" precinct. Walnut creek rises in 
"L" precinct, and joins the river near the south line of sec- 
tion 7 in "M" precinct. Indian creek traverses the south- 
western portion of "M" and empties into the West Blue just 
southwest of Beaver Crossing. West Blue is a most excel- 
lent mill stream, and carries two llouring mills in this county 
and furnishes drainage to all the southwestern portion of the 
county. The river and tributaries are supplied at convenient 
distances with bridges. It is noted for an abundant supply of 
superior lish. The North Blue enters the county in section 
3 in "C" precinct, and its course is southeasterly through 
"C" and "G," and gracefully swings to the west and south 
of the city of Seward and passes through "J," "O" and "P" 
precincts. Its principal tributary, Lincoln creek, enters 
the county in section 34 in "D" precinct, and traverses the 
southern portion of "D" and "C" precincts and the north- 
western portion of "G." and joins the river just west of Se- 
ward. Lincoln creek is a beautiful mill stream, and its 
broad valley is grandly beautiful. One mill in this county, 
at Marysville, only as yet responds to its invitation. Plum 
creek enters the county in section 3 in "B" precinct, and 
cuts the precinct centrally and emyjties its water into the 
river just south of Seward. Various other small streams 
join the main river and help in the excellent system of drain- 
age. 



278 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Blue river furnishes ample power for mills and factories, 
but these water-powers are only utilized in three points, viz: 
Seward, by H. L. Boyes & Sons, with a very creditable mill, 
at the Cooper & Henderson mill, and at Milford, where 
Messrs. Johnson & Co. have, at least, one of the most ex- 
tensive merchant mills in the west. 

Several branches of Oak creek traverse "A" precinct, 
and numerous branches of Middle creek have their rise in 
"H" and "I" precincts, furnishing ample drainage and sup- 
plying numerous running streams of pure water, making 
the eastern portion of the county par excellent as a stock- 
growing region. 

The general surface of the country is a slightly undulat- 
ing plain, with a southern inclination, and probably pre- 
sents as many acres of first-class tillable land as any county 
of our state. The altitude of the county is from 1400 to 1500 
feet above tidewater. Our geographical position is sixty 
miles west of the Missouri, twenty-five south of the Platte, 
and forty-eight north of the Kansas line. The forty-first 
parallel of north latitude forms our northern boundary, and 
our western limit is the sixth principal meridian line. The 
ninety-seventh meridian of west longitude from Greenwich 
passes through the eastern portion of the county and about 
three and one-half miles east of Seward. Our elevation 
seems to be just about right; we are generally free from 
malaria; chills and fevers are scarcely known since the 
pioneer days. At the date of the early settlement, when 
great quantities of new prairie sod w^ere in the process of 
decay and the people had to endure unreasonable exposure, 
we were subject to chills and fever or ague. We are free 
from that close, humid atmosphere of lower elevations, and 
yet we are not high enough to produce the inconvenience in 
breathing experienced in the higher altitudes. Our atmos- 
phere is peculiarly bracing and energizing. Nights are 
cool, yet we are not subject to early or late frosts. We 
have usually a very small amount of snow, and scarcely no 
winter rains. Occasionally we have winter storms that are 
terrific, but they do not often occur. Our principal rainfall 
is between March 1st and September 1st, and is usually as 
well distributed through the growing season as in any per- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 279 

tion of this continent. Our streams are not subject to dis- 
astrous overflows, as they are deeply imbedded and of rapid 
current. Our wells are of moderate depth, varying from 
tw^elve to twenty-live feet on the bottom lands and from 
forty to one hundred feet on the upland; however there are 
but few that exceed sixty feet. The water is uniformly very 
excellent and abundant. We are especially fortunate in the 
all-important element of water and water-courses. 



TWO FOURTH OF JULY EPOCHS IN THE 
HISTORY OF SEWARD 

Just about one month after the embryo city was estab- 
lished, we had a celebration. 

Let us look for a moment at Seward as it then was and 
the surroundings. There was one little frame store— Beaty 
& Davis's — on the ground now occupied by Temp Anderson's 
grocery house; the Tuttle house, a small frame in an un- 
finished condition, where the old Commercial House now 
stands; Beaty 's small residence, on the spot occupied by the 
Windsor House, and also a small frame house of Hon. W. R. 
Davis, on the lot now occupied by the family. Orlando 
Pierce had a small frame residence under construction, near 
the northeast corner of the block south of the State Bank, 
with the old log cabin of Lewis Moftitt on the lot now occu- 
pied by the residence of Mrs. Moftitt; a dug-out occupied by 
Geo. Boyes' family, near the old saw-mill, and the little old 
log sod-covered school house, near the present residence of 
Mrs. Spear, was all there was of Seward on that memorable 
day. Be it remembered there was not yet a legal road 
leading into or out of Seward. There was not yet a bridge 
of any kind on Plum creek, and only one low-water bridge 
on the river north of Milford. This was near the old Wm. 
Imlay farm, about eighty rods up the river from the present 
jron bridge, near Mr. Castle's farm residence. 

There were located within live miles of the village the 
|:ollowing named families: S. C. Koss, on the Gale home- 
stead; Stites Wooley, on section 15, town 11, range 3, east; 
D. P. Imlay, on section 15; David Imlay, Sr., on section 10; 
Mrs. Dunway, gn section 3; Dr. Leland Walker, on section 



280 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

11, (By the way, a severe storm had wrecked the doctor's 
residence and he was just in tlie act of gathering up the 
fragments and hauling them to town, and we beheve the 
family were living in a tent where the opera house now 
stands.); Roger Cooper, on section 12; Wm. Imlay, on sec- 
tion 18; John Roberts, on section 20; John N. Roberts, on 
section 19; Joseph C. Sampson, on section 19; Richard 
Sampson, on section 17; James A. Brown, on section 20; 
Ezra Shafer and Rev. E. L. Clark on section 28; Lewis An- 
derson and Wm. Anderson on section 11, range 2, east; 
•Tames Anderson on section — ; Rev. E. W. Johnson on sec- 
tion — ; Thomas Skillman on section — ; Geo. Rogers and his 
mother on section — ; Geo. Sloneker on section — ; Chas. 
Thurman on section — ; Joseph Thurman on section — ; E. 
L. Ellis, F. Duncan and W. W. Cox on section 8, town 11, 
range 8, east. 

The mass of the county was wild prairie as was nearly 
all the town site. There was a corn field on all the ground 
from Jackson avenue north. The few people of the town 
and community, however, were patriotic and they deter- 
mined to have a celebration. Some of the good women 
gathered up some strips of bunting and made a flag, Mrs. J. 
N. Beaty led in this laudable undertaking. The men went 
down to Moffitt's grove and cut the tallest and straightest 
pole to be found. Others were delegated to sally around 
and notify the country people of the celebration, and the 
neighbors rallied, some on foot, some on horseback, .some 
with horse teams, and some with ox teams. They came 
with hearts full of enthusiasm and we celebrated.. We had 
no canon, neither firecrackers, brass bands, excursion 
trains nor .strong drink. The good people had dug a public 
well in the public square and it gave us plenty of good cold, 
clear and si^arkling water; we had plenty to drink of life- 
giving water and were all able to get home from the celebra- 
tion without the help of the police. 

We raised the pole and sent the flag skyward to flutter 
for the first time over this beautiful land. A great pile of 
dirt from the well answered the purpose of a rostrum. The 
Declaration of Independence was read. Sweet patriotic .songs 
were sung. Uncle John Ward and the writer made speeches 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 281 

and of course they were eloquent. We all had a a good time 
and went home happy. 



JULY FOURTH 1876 

The Centennial celebration at Seward was one long to be 
remembered. Ample preparations had been made by a com- 
petent committee, and in what was then known as Robert's 
grove — now a part of the fairgrounds— the celebration was 
held. 

The day was ushered in with beautiful sunshine. Sew- 
ard was at the time a wide-awake business place of five or 
six hundred people. It was eight years old, the end of the 
Midland Pacific railroad, and commanded the trade from 
Seward, York, Hamilton, Butler and Polk counties. At an 
early hour people began to arrive in all kinds of vehicles 
known to the time. A vast procession was formed in the 
streets representing all the various industries and peculiari- 
ties of our community. Delegations from distant countie.^, 
and every nook and corner of our county came pouring into 
the town until the throng was immense beyond computation. 
It is speaking within bounds when we say not less than five 
thousand people were on the grounds at the exercises. It 
was a day of festivity, recreation and pleasure. Bands of 
music made the welkin ring. Cannon boomed and the small 
boy with the firecracker helped the thing along. Eloquent 
addresses were made, and right here the author did his first 
historical work. He read a short history of the county, or 
rather a series of reminiscences of the early settlement, and 
the applause of that vast throng perhaps is what has inspired 
his later efforts in that line. It was truly an era of good 
will, and all went merry as a marriage bell, and as we re- 
member there was no accident to mar the occasion. 



FIRST WHITE CHILD OF SEWARD COUNTY 

In the far off years to come when this generation has 
passed off the stage, it will be most interesting to know who, 
among the thousands that have had their homes here, was 
the first of our race to come to light and life. This person 



282 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

was Ellen, daughter of Thomas Morgan and wife, born at 
the old home of her parents on the Blue river, about half a 
mile north and east of Ruby station in "J" precinct, October 
7, 1861. Her present name is Mrs. L. W. Perkins, of Fron- 
tier county, Nebraska. 



POLITICAL MATTERS OF SEWARD COUNTY 

Tliere are some peculiar features about the politics of 
this county worthy of special notice. For many years the 
county was strongly republican, especially on national and 
state matters, and the 'first two elections every candidate of 
that party was elected by large majorities. There are no 
records to be found of the election returns from the begin- 
ning of our political life in 1865 up to 1875. Somehow these 
records have been lost in the shuttle. This much we re- 
member, that our first Presidential election in lcS6s, Grant 
received 159 votes and Seymour received 41, and in 1872 
Grant received 637 votes and Greeley 138. In 1876, w^e find 
the full returns wherein Hayes received 905 votes and Til- 
den 325. In 1880 Garfield received 1354 and Hancock 699. 
In 1884' Blaine received 1630 and Butler and Cleveland, 
Fusion, 1332; St. John received 67. In 1888 Harrison re- 
ceived 1804 and Cleveland 1658, Fisk 104 and Streeter 12. 
In 1892 Harrison received 1330 and Cleveland 763, Weaver, 
populist, 1166. In 1896 McKinley received 1688, Palmer 53, 
and Bryan 1876. It will be noted that this is the first and 
only time in the history of the county that other than the 
republican candidate for the presidency, secured a majority 
of votes in the county, Mr. Bryan being the regular demo- 
cratic candidate and supported by the populists. In 1900, 
McKinley received 1937, Bryan 1865, and 49 votes were scat- 
tering. In 1904, Roosevelt received 2243, Parker 1029, scat- 
tering 371. 

On the gubernatorial ticket, David Butler received large 
majorities in 1860, 1868, and 1870; Furnas in 1872; Garber in 
1874 and 1876; Nance in 1878 and 1880; Dawes in 1882 and 
1884; Thayer in 18S6 and 1H88. In 1H90 the scale turned 
when J. E. Boyd the democratic candidate received 147H, while 
iRjchards, republican, received only 1238; Powers, indepen- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 283 

dent, 922; Paine, prohibition, received 49. In 1892, the tide 
turned aj?ain, and Crounse received 1237; Van Wick, populist, 
received 1055; J. Sterling Morton, democrat, 955; and Bent- 
ley, prohibition, 70. In 1894 the populists had an inning. 
Holcomb received 1605; Majors, republican, 1496; and 183 
scattering. In 1896, Holcomb received 1957, and McColl, 
republican, 1530, with 72 scattering. In 1898 and again in 
1900 Poynter, fusion, received 1633; Hayward, republican, 
1511; scattering, 22. In 1902, Mickey received 1595; Thomp- 
son, fusion, 1597; and Davis, prohibition, 41. In 1904, Mick- 
ey received 1751; Berge, fusion, 1842; scattering, 69. 

Notwithstanding the county was so strongly republican 
for so many years, Hon. Thomas Graham, a thorough going 
democrat was elected live successive terms county clerk, 
1870 to 1880: he was followed by Ed. O'Keefe, an anti-monop- 
olist one term; then Joseph Dupin, another red-hot democrat, 
was elected three successive terms, up to 1888, when the tide 
turned and R. T. Coo]:)er, republican, was elected. Since 
that time the clerkship has drifted back and forth from re- 
publican to populist and democrat, just as it happened. 

The office of sheriff has also been in the hands of the 
democrats a large share of the time. 

Three terms out of six in the early years the democrats 
elected the state senator, viz: Graham, Dumphey, and 
Wright: and of later years it has drifted from one party to 
the other, republican, democrat and fusion being about equal. 

From 1868 to 1887, a mixed ticket was elected, but in 
the last named year the republicans made a clean sweep. It 
is proper to say that nearly all the gentlemen elected were 
very popular and worthy citizens. Just why it has so hap- 
pened that a naturally strong republican county as this was 
for so many years should elect so many men on the opposi- 
tion ticket is hard to explain, only in this way: that our peo- 
ple are very independent and will vote just as the notion 
takes them, without much regard for politics. 

It will be noted in the roster of county officials, mem- 
bers of the state senate representing Seward county but cit- 
izens of other counties, are not noted. 

The county officers of the county have been very efficient 
men and have performed their duties well. For thirty-three 



284 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

years there has not been a defaulter, and only one little ir- 
regularity that is hardly worth noticing. 



MILFORD'S UNWELCOME GUESTS 

A scene of wild excitement occurred in the summer of 
1878, when the Ponca Indians were journeying from their 
old home in the north part of our state to their new home 
in the Indian territory. Under the command of Major How- 
ard the Ponca tribe, about live hundred strong, were passing 
through this county. As they passed through Seward all 
seemed cheerful and happy. We recollect that the tribe was 
well provided with excellent teams, new wagons, and all the 
necessaries of life, but there was an under current of dis- 
satisfaction at having to leave the old home. Sliortly after 
leaving Seward one of the teamsters had an accident which 
started trouble. His wagon was overturned and a child was 
killed. This was a bad omen to the mind of the Indians, at 
same time a chief's daughter was very sick, and was carried 
on a litter. 

Late in the day the band arrived at the proposed camp- 
ing ground near the bridge, and just at this time the young 
squaw died. This was another bad omen, and the Indi- 
ans were becoming excited thinking the great spirit was 
angry at theoi. The major saw there was a spirit of great 
discontent, and he promised them a week of rest. 

The teppes were placed and camp tires were started, 
just then a furious storm broke upon them. One squaw had 
a kettle of boiling water suspended on a tripod over the fire. 
Some children were seated near the fire an awful gust of 
wind overturned tents and threw the camp into dire confusion, 
and the huge kettle of boiling water scalded one child to 
death, and another was seriously burned by being knocked 
into the fire. Confusion ruled the hour, Pandimonium broke 
loose. 

Fortunately the bucks had just been shooting beeves 
and had used up all the ammunition at hand. Major Howard 
sent a messenger post haste up town for a doctor. Dr. 
Brandon quickly responded, little thinking that he was to 
"wajk into the jaws of death; into the mouth of hell." Dark- 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 285 

ness began to veil the sky, and peal on peal of dreadful 
thunder with the ghastly scene only illumined by the flashes 
of lurid lightning and the whole camp in the wild revelry of 
a war dance and ready to wreak vengeance upon the pale face. 
Major Howard had under his command about thirty white 
teamsters with the doctor; in their midst a hollow square was 
formed and the men with revolvers were given strict orders 
to fire to kill provided the ferocious savages made an on- 
slaught with raised tomahawks, and scalping knives. The 
doctor of course was brave, but somehow his hat raised a 
foot or more. Thirty white men had to cooly face five hun- 
dred infuriated savages. The moment was awful in the ex- 
treme. The Indians were so frantic with rage that it was 
with great difticulty that a parley was effected, but finally a 
truce was made, when the poor creatures could be made to 
understand that it was the medicine man come to their relief, 
when they quieted down. The people of Milord knew nothing 
of the trouble or danger until it was all over. 

If a blow had been struck or a shot fired there would 
probably have been one of the bloody tragedies of history to 
relate for the village would only have been awakened when 
the work of death and distruction had commenced. 



CHAPTKR XVI. 



NEWSPAPERS OF SEWARD COUNTY 



NEBRASKA ATLAS 

The story of the newspapers of our county, if all told, 
would be a long one. The date of the first issue of a paper 
in the county is March 16, 1870, when O. T. B. Williams a 
former editor and proprietor of a paper in Columbus, Neb- 
raska, managed to find Seward. 

The long and tedious winter had given way before the 
genial sunshine of spring when Mr. Williams put in his ap- 
pearance. The good people were feeling pretty good and 
were ready to welcome the advent of a newspaper. The 
press that was to do the work was a "small fry," but we 
were all glad to welcome it; it was yet a "day of small 
things" in this county. If the press was small, it was large 
enough for the work it had to do. The paper was not as 
large as a "Sunday Bee" or a "Chicago Tribune" but it was 
large in our eyes at the time. It was christened, "Nebraska 
Atlas." This would indicate that the field of its useful in- 
fluence would be as wide as our young state. We will quote 
from its news columns the principal paragraphs of the first 
issue, as follows: 

"The new frame school house is to be commenced short- 
ly. We are greatly in need of the building and we hope the 
committee will prosecute the work with vigor. We trust the 
building will be completed in time for the summer school." 

The reader wnll note that the above named school house 
was our first frame school house: it was .sold by the dis- 
trict when the brick building was erected in 1874. 

Tne next item in the news column was that that there 
was near $700 subscribed for the new Baptist church. This 
is most encouraging. 

"Our citizens have taken hold of the matter in earnest. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 287 

and there is no doubt but this summer will see the church 
edifice completed. Mr. Moffitt gives three lots on which to 
erect it." 

These were the lots owned and occupied for many years 
by the Presbyterian church. More of this on another page. 

"A petition is about to be started for the incorporation 
of our town [Seward] and we hope to see every name upon it." 

"Judge J. D. Maine in the Oak Grove settlement is 
credited with raising one hundred and fourteen bushels of 
corn to the acre the previous summer." 

We select the following correspondence in the first issue 
which in the light of subsequent events reads a little like 
prophecy: 

Seward, March 15, 1870. 
Dear Atlas: 

"We are glad to welcome your appearance among us. It 
makes us feel as if we were getting out of the wilderness. 
We have been watching and waiting through a long night 
of anxiety, and now behold a 'sign of promise.' The dark- 
ness is giving way, the sky is brightening, the clouds that 
have overshadowed us are disappearing, the day is dawning 
and we rejoice. Now let us put our shoulders to the wheel 
of progress, and these waste places shall be made glad, this 
'wilderness will smile,' and instead of the yelping coyote, or 
the hoot of the owl, or the whoop of the wild man, as in the 
days past, we will behold a city surrounded by thousands of 
splendid farms. Here we will see springing into life facto- 
ries, seminaries, churclies, and here will concentrate work- 
shops and a multitude of merchants, and here will soon be 
heard the approaching tread of the iron horse. As the icy 
fetters of winter are giving way before a genial sun, we can 
already hear the sound of approaching footsteps from the 
far-off East, coming to find homes with us, and soon we shall 
hear the thundering tread of the mighty army that is com- 
ing to posses the land. 

Truly, 

W. W. Cox." 

We give also a letter from the county, which throws 
much light on the situation of things in general of that day: 



288 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

"Hickman viLLE, March 10, 1870. 
Mr. Editor; 

"Presuming that the Atlas is to be published for the gen- 
eral information of the whole country, and the inhabitants of 
Seward county in particular, I propose to give your readers 
a few items from this settlement, the 'land of promise.' This 
place lies five miles north of Seward and seven miles from 
Ulysses, and derived its name from the large influx of Hick- 
mans from the state of Iowa, John D. Hickman being the 
pioneer, who settled on his land (homestead) in 1868. Since 
that time immigrants have come so rapidly that all the gov- 
ernment land in this immediate vicinity has been taken up, 
principally as homesteads. Some tw^enty buildings have 
already been erected, and several more are in course of erec- 
tion. 

"A school district was organized in the spring of 1869, 
with Thomas J. Poore as director. A schoolhouse (sod) w^as 
built in the fall of that year, and a teacher hired, who com- 
menced his labors January 1, 1870. We learn that the aver- 
age attendance w^as twenty. A lyceum was also organized 
about January 1st, which was christened the Pioneer Ly- 
ceum, and which has been in full blast ever since, meeting 
weekly, and as far as I can learn, giving general satisfaction. 
In connection w^th the lyceum a paper was established (Pio- 
neer Banner) devoted to literature, fine arts, general news, 
and advertisements. The paper has been well and ably ed- 
ited, but an exchange of editors being necessary according 
to the by-laws, a 'Poore' man w^as placed in the editorial 
chair. 

"Our school closed its winter term February 25th, with 
honor to both teacher and scholars, the exhibition— the first 
in the county — taking place on Monday the 28th. The house 
was crowded, and everything passed off harmoniously, and 
to the entire satisfaction of all, Hon. W. R. Davis delivering 
the oration. 

' 'Thrift and enterprise seem to prevail. No less than 
seven wells have been sunk within sixty days, with gratify- 
ing results. 

"The weather for the past few weeks has been magnifi- 
cent. Preparations will soon be made for seeding if the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 289 

weather continues gfood. We are looking for an early spring. 

"Plenty of good land to the north and west of us, but 
none in this immediate vicinity. 

"And now, Mr. Editor, having given you our situation, 
we trust that your endeavors to establish a first class county 
newsi:)aper will prove successful, and that your career may 
be honorable and prosperous to yourself and those you rep- 
resent, is the wish of your correspondent." 

Clippings from old numbers of the Nebraska Atlas: (On- 
ly part of the tiles have been preserved.) 

Feb. 27, 1871 -Addie, wife of J. P. Losee, died. Mrs. 
Losee leaves a husband and a large circle of friends to mourn 
her loss. She had been married but a year. 

Mrs. Abram Wallick also died the same day. She was 
in her thirty- sixth year, and was the mother of thirteen 
children, and a very estimable Christian lady. Her husband 
and large family, and a host of friends mourn for her. 

July 21st — Warren Clough's wedding occurred. 

July 28th — The first brick dwelling is mentioned, D. C. 
McKillip's residence. 

Sep. 1st — Notice is given of the appointment of W. W. Cox 
as statistical correspondent of the Department of Agriculture. 

Sep. 22nd — John Robert's new farmhouse is looming up. 

Nov. 3rd^ Notes the advent of a man, wife, and nine 
girls, and only one son-in-law. 

The Presbyterian church is raised. 

June 18, 1873 — I. B. Compton has just finished the first 
tin roof in Seward. [The old postoffice building, just west 
of the Butler block.] 

Same date notes that fourteen Bohemians loaded up with 
building material for their houses in Hamilton county. 

The visit of Thomas Scott, the railroad king, and ex- 
Gov. Dennison, of Ohio, is commented on. 

July 2nd — Pour tights in the streets are mentioned. 

Aug. 27th — The Seward grain-buyers get rough over- 
hauling. 

Sep. 3rd — $5, 000 school bonds were voted by a majority 
of twenty-one. 

July 23rd — State Bank is open for business. 



290 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Aug. 13th — The purchase of the Presbyterian bell is 
noted. Also that the telegraph is completed to Seward. 

Dec. 10th — The Mohawk Lumber Company has unloaded 
one hundred and seventy cars of lumber since March 1st. 

Jan. 21, 1874 — John N. Edwards is advertised for a free 
lecture in the church. 

Jan. 2st — John Tresslar and Carrie Olmstead are mar- 
ried. 

Jan. 28th — The Baptist church was completed. 

March 4th — The paper is badly nettled by the 'crusade 
movement,' and its columns are full of burlesque notices of 
them. They were evidently making it difficult; for him to 
get his regular drinks. 

April 22nd — War was declared by Foucet's saloon against 
the crusaders, and a shameful scene ensued, which reflected 
no credit on the town or its ofiicers. 

May 13th — The incoming Midland train ran over a pole- 
cat, and the passengers needed no perfumery for some time. 

May 20th — The injunction in the case of Monteith, in re- 
gard to planting trees on the public square, is yet unsettled. 

May 27th — Work on the M. E. church is being pushed 
with vigor. 

May 29th— Leroy Moffitt, the only son of Lewis Moffitt, 
died. Leroy was a kind liearted boy of about twenty years, 
and the loss is sadly felt by his parents, the friends of the 
family, and the young people, with whom he was a favorite. 

June 3rd— Little, Brock & Curson's elevator is under 
construction, the tirst in town. 

July 15 — The drowning of Peter Gerken in the Blue riv- 
er just south of town is noted. Also that Pricheau's block 
is going up rapidly; that Seward has three select schools; 
and also, that the comet is visible and growing brighter. 

It was truly an up-hill business to run a pa])er in so sparse- 
ly a settled country, and Editor Williams had a, hard time of it. 

In the winter of 1870 and 1871 the Atlas, as we used to 
say of povei'ty stricken cattle, "was on the lift," and the 
citizens made a festival to help it out and keep the poor thing 
from winter-killing. 

By the way, Seward was a great place in those early 
days for festivals and sociables. They were always well at- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 291 

tended and proved both entertaining and profitable. It made 
no difference if it was for the benefit of the churcli or some 
otlier public enterprise, the people flocked to such entertain- 
ments and were all on a perfect equality Old and young 
were there without distinction as to standing, race, or color. 
The people were all upon a perfect equality and enjoyed life 
remarkably well. 

The Nebraska Atlas managed to eke out an existence 
for nearly four years. Mr. Williams grew tired and disposed 
of the office and good will (that good will was a big thing 
"you know") to W. C. Cloyd and he associated with him 
Prof. O. S. Ingham again and they attempted to convert the 
paper into a great literary paper simiLir in appearance to 
the Toledo Blade, but they did not have Nasby to edit it and 
so the failure was complete. Prof. Ingham again took to the 
school-room where he was perfectly at home, and Mr. Cloyd 
managed to get the Atlas back into shallow water where it 
could swim or wade, and it managed to live until sometime 
in the summer of 1874, when it gave up the ghost. It died 
of too much democracy for its day. 



THE BLUE VALLEY RECORD 

Was the second newspaper to put in an appearance. It 
was first issued on the 29th day of December, LSTO, at Mil- 
ford and it continued its existance until April 10th, 1873. It 
was a lively and interesting paper from start to finish. Cul- 
ver and Parsons were the editors from its beginning to the 
end and they worked manfully for what they thought to be 
for the best interest of Milford and the county. They held 
Milford up before the world with ability and energy, and 
many times they made it quite interesting for the Seward 
people. It frequently measured swords with the Atlas and 
later with the Reporter. 

The files of the Record have all been well preserved and 
it has been our privilege to examine every page of them and 
have gleaned many interesting facts of historic value and 
many incidents both curious and interesting. We make no 
excuse for the free use we make of clippings. The valuable 
tiles are deposited with the State Historical Society at Lin- 



292 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

coin. The work of the Record has frequently been quoted 
in other papers in these pages, and now the best history we 
can give is to let it tell its own story in the following clip- 
pings. 

From the Blue Valley Record of December 29, 1870, 
the first number ever issued, we extract the following inter- 
eresting items: 

The editor opens his paper with a three-column histoi^y of 
the county, in which he claims that Thomas West made the 
first settlement in 1859, and Daniel Morgan in 1H60. He also 
credits J. L. Davison with being the third settler. This we 
are quite sure is a mistake, for we were at Mr. Davison's 
house on Salt creek as late as the autumn of l!-i61, a little to 
the south w^est of the present town of Roca. Mr. Davison 
opened his old Camden ranch in the fall of 1862. James 
West located m 1860, near his brother Thomas; and Orin 
Johnson as early as 1860. 

The editor says that Mr. Davison, with a man by the name 
of Ellis, located the territorial road from Nebraska City to 
Port Kearney, but fails to state the time. We are quite sure 
this occurred in the spring of I860, for we distinctly remem- 
ber that Wm. E. Hill and party, of Nebraska City, went and 
built the old bridge on the Blue near Camden, just above the 
forks of the river and just by the county line, in the early 
summer of 1860. So it is quite probable that the road was 
then located. The editor says that Mr. Davison, as he re- 
turned from this trip, pre-empted a place near (\amden, which 
was afterwards the ranch. This is undoubtedly correct, but 
pre-emptors did not have to so carefully watch their claims 
then as later. There were scarcely any to molest or make 
afraid. The changing the name of the county is noted, and 
the building of the West mills; Parker and Roper's mill at 
Camden, and the Milford mills are all mentioned, and the 
agricultural resources and possibilities of the county are dis- 
cussed at length. It is noted that immigration set in in 
earnest in 1866, and that all the eastern and northern states 
were represented, and it was claimed that the closing of the 
year 1870 found full three thousand souls in the county. 

It was claimed that in the summer of 1870 there were 
broken over four thousand acres of land. The average crop 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 293 

report was noted as follows: wheat, twenty bushels per acre; 
oats, forty; corn, forty-live. Numei'ous groves had been 
])lanted. Osage, plum, cottonwood and walnut were experi- 
mented with for hedges. Our soils are described as rich 
sandy loam, largely composed of decayed vegetable matter 
and underlaid with a clay subsoil, and well adapted to with- 
stand drouth. The peat deposits west of Milford are noticed. 
The surface and drainage of the county are favorably com- 
mented upon, and it was claimed that the waste lands were 
all in some other county, which was very correct. The 
water-powers of the rivers receive favorable mention. The 
red sandstone of Middle creek, and the white limestone in 
the southern part of the county, also the shell limestone of 
the north-east, are all noted. The indications of coal are 
mentioned. 

The school system and first school are mentioned as 
follows: 

"The county being so thinly settled, the formation of a 
school district was not to be thought of until the year 1S67, 
when a few families combined and formed an independent 
school at Camden, and employed Miss Eva Hooker as teacher. 
This we believe to be the first school in the county." In 
this the editor is mistaken. There was one up near West 
Mills prior to this; also one at Seward as early as the previous 
winter. The people are represented as wide-awake in edu- 
cational matters, and every individual was a committee of 
one to see that there was a school at tlie earliest possible 
date, and the result has been a healthy growth of educational 
interests in the young county. At the date of writing there 
are sixteen organized disti'icts and one academical associa- 
tion. The teachers are highly commended, and also the pa- 
trons, for their zeal. The Southern Nebraska C. C. Acad- 
emy, under the supervision of Hon. Geo. B. Prance, is spoken 
of as highly creditable to the county, and as already well 
spoken of abroad. 

Three villages —Camden Milford and Seward — are all 
spoken of in the highest terms; a compliment is paid to the 
Nebraska Atlas, the pioneer newspaper of the county. Mil- 
ford was well described as the county seat, and with two 
good water-powers and splendid possibilities. 



294 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

In summing up the growth it is noted that from three 
families in 1862, now three thousand bright intelligent people 
have united their fortunes with the interests of the county. 

The edito]' seems to have set squarely before the world 
the county of his choice, and he certainly did it; and even 
now we remember his efforts with gratitude, as he was so 
earnestly striving to make this wilderness to smile. 



CLIPPINGS, 

"We notice a motto on a prairie schooner as follows: 
'York county or bust.' " 

"The apportionment of school money to Seward county 
for 1870 is $1,452.42 to 782 scholars." 

We also note from same table that whole number of 
scholars in Nebraska was 32,762. 

The editor's salutatory contains these words: "Morally 
we shall labor for what we believe to be truth and justice, 
and shall act upon what we profess." Also it says: "We shall 
labor for the best interests of the republican party, not in a 
partisan spirit, but in a firm belief that it is the true party 
of progress and reform." 

January 5, 1871. — "J. L. Davidson, of Milford, has near- 
ly completed the largest and best dwelling house in the coun- 
ty." The house spoken of is the square house just west of 
the bridge. It don't look the largest or the bast in 1905. 

"A number of prominent Seward people are in town 
(Milford) attending probate court." That reads strangely 
now. 

"Wm. G. Keen is recommended for postmaster at Nelden? 
the new office on Walnut creek ten miles west of Milford." 

January 12th. — "Fresh buffalo meat is on sale, at three 
cents per pound." 

From a communication by Fair Play, it is claimed that 
Miss Agnes Bailey (now Mrs. Cornelius West) taught the 
first school in Saline county, near the county line, and was 
patronized by citizens of both counties. This was in the 
spring of 1861. She also taught a school near West's mill 
in 1868. So sha has the honor of teaching the first school 
of both Saline and Seward co unties; and Miss Englehouft 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 295 

taught the West Mills school in 1865-66. In 1866 the resi- 
dents of Camden district organized under the school law, 
bought" the old building in Saline county and moved it over, 
and Thomas Graham taught during the winter of 1866-67. 

The same articles mentions that Thomas Graham has a 
tine orchard of apple and pear trees which are doing well, 
and that J. W. Lowrie has peaches of his own planting, 
probably the tirst in the county. Jt is also mentioned that 
Mrs. Graham, Mrs. Lowrie, and Mrs. Parker are making 
the prairie blaze with the variety and beauty of their flowers. 

The county superintendent reports the school fund as 
follows: 

Apportioned by state $1,452 42 

Dog fund 193 38 

Fines and licenses 100 00 

Total $1,745 80 

This was distributed to twenty-six directors as follows: 
District No. 1 , F. L. Roper, Camden $ 85 25 

2, Orin Johnson, West Mills 44 58 

3, Sam Englehaupt, on West Blue 51 15 

4, W. J. Thompson, on Walnut creek. . .. 74 65 

5, Rev. T. M. Skinner, Milford 150 67 

6, Matthew Hack worth (east of Ruby). . . 110 00 

7, Geo. W. Lesenby, north of Milford. . . 44 58 

8, Wm. Anderson, west of Seward 87 32 

9, H. L.Boyes, Seward 125 92 

10, J. D. Thurman, on Lincoln creek ... . 58 72 
" 11, W. W. Cox, north-west of Seward. . . 44 58 

12, T. Poore, six miles north of Seward. . 76 42 

13, C. C. Berkey, center of "A" 88 79 

14, E. C. Archer, we.st of Staplehurst. . . 74 65 

15, wanting 

16, A. Montgomery, north-west of "N". . 78 19 

17, M. M. Neeves 62 28 

18, Sam Strohm, center of "O" 33 96 

19, Ed. H'ealey, south west of "P" 56 95 

20, J. N. McCauley, center of "M" 58 73 

21, J. A, Reymer, south-east of "1" 53 42 

22, Wolsey Weyant, southern "H" ...... 46 3^ 



296 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

District No. 23, Thos. Healey, northern "N" 55 19 

24, R. J. McCall, west of "M" 44 5s 

25, Wm. Halle, south-east of "N" ' 34 10 

26, Geo. W. Losy (Bachelor) 51 65 

This was done at Milford, January 7, 1871, by Geor^^e 

B. France, superintendent. 

The reader will please compare the above table with 
the present showing of the disbursements to ninety districts. 
It will be noticed that Milford district at that date was the 
most populous and had the most money, while Seward was 
second. 

In March, 1871, it is noted that James Her was appointed 
postmaster at Pleasant Dale. 

April 6th — The organization of the American Bible So- 
ciety by Rev. McCaadlish, of Omaha. Messrs. Birge, Keyes, 
S. Brown, and D. C. Tift were elected executive committee. 
Culver and Parsons were appointed to care for the books. 

Editor noting a visit of Geo. McKay, A. D. Sperry, and 
E. H. Nonon, of the north partof the county, says: "Perhaps 
we can visit you by rail before another century. " The century 
proved to be a short one. You can do it now, my friend. 

April 13th — "S. W. Houston has received his appointment 
as postmaster at Oak Grove." Now "A" town. 

April 20th — "Wm. Knight has received his appointment 
as postmaster at Groveland north of Seward." 

May 4th — The leturn of a hunting party consisting of J. 
W. Hickman, Mr. Davis, Ellis Gandy, Elias Frame, and oth- 
ers, with three loads of buffalo meat. Their game was 
caught on the Kansas border, south of the Republican. 

One hundred and eighty-nine emigrant wagons passed 
through Milford during April. 

Tuesday, May 2d — The second term of the district court 
met. Judge Lake on the bench. Twenty- four cases on the 
docket. 

We glean from the county superintendent's report for 
the year ending April 1st, the following interesting educa- 
tional statistics: 

Whole number of children of school age , 1,247 

Number attending school , 679 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 297 

Number of teachers employed (male) 19 

(female) 20 

Average daily attendance 754 

Total amount paid teachers during year $3,717.00 

We also glean from an editorial note that there are twen- 
ty school-houses — six frame, four log, seven sod, and three 
dug-outs. The editor remarks that the people must have an 
inordinate desire to educate the ' children, to face winter 
storms across the blighted railroad lands, long distances to 
a dug-out or sod shanty to school. We think as much. 

From a Seward correspondent of June 1, l.s71, that Sew- 
ard is a bright town of three summers, and has about one 
hundred and seventy people. 

We also note that at that time H. M. Coleman was princi- 
pal of our school. 

The organization of the Odd Fellows' Lodge, with L. G. 
Johns as Noble Grand. 

Tuesday, June 13th — At Milford the Good Templars or- 
ganized a lodge. Rev. J. M. Yearnshaw, Dis. D. G. W. C. T., 
assisted by D. W. Amesbury, of Lincoln. Officers elected 
were: J. L. Davidson, W. C. T. ; Miss Mattie Drake, W. V. T. ; 
H. G. Parsons, W. R. Scribe; G. B. France, W. F. Sec; Mrs. 
J. Laune, W. Treas. ; F. J. Culver, W. Chaplain. Onaway 
was the name chosen. 

Beaver Crossing was mentioned as "Nicholsville," and 
it is reported that work on the mill was progressing finely. 
Main street is being surveyed, and everything is bidding fair 
to make a youthful city in a short time. 

June 15th — H. W. Parker's nomination as registrar of 
Beatrice land office is noted. 

July 20th — "Corn stands about six feet high in the Blue 
valley." 

July 6th — "Jeff Stevens, a resident six miles north- west 
of here, was found under a load of overturned lumber, about 
four miles east of town, near the bridge on Middle creek. 
Mr. Stevens leaves a wife and ten children to mourn his loss. " 

The June apportionment of school moneys show $2,021 .10, 
divided among forty districts. 

We also notice that in this apportionment Seward leads 



298 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

with $132.90, and Milford takes the second place with $125.25. 
Fourteen new districts had been formed since January. 

This number contains a sliarp letter from "Well Wisher," 
on the county seat embrogiio. Also a long editorial on a 
newly discovered coal mine, which it was claimed had been 
found by Mr. Stockton, forty-seven feet below the surface, 
and Mr. S. claimed they had bored four feet and six inches 
into solid coal. 

July 27th — Milford is announced as a money order office. 

August 10th — Dr. Woodward is announced for a lecture. 
Subject: "Immateriality of the mind and its relation to the 
body." 

August 19th — The Record gives some heavy hits at the 
Seward liars for reporting small-pox at Milford. 

August 24th — Gold is quoted at $1.12. 

Same date, we find the report of a railroad meeting at 
Camden, W. C. Scott, chairman, and Ed. Healy, secretary. 
Judge Hooker and Gen. Vifquain otfered the following reso- 
lutions: 

Whereas, We, citizens of Seward, Saline, York, Ham- 
ton and Hall counties, have been fraudulently deprived of 
the benefits that might have arisen out of the construction 
of the B. & M. R. R. on their original survey, and 

Whereas, We settled along the line with the full un- 
derstanding that the road should be built on said survey, ac- 
cording to act of Congress, donating to them half of our na- 
tional inheritance, and 

Whereas, The said corporation is assisted by Nebraska 
politicians, in its schemes to plunder the people, 

Be it RESOLVED, That we pledge our sacred honors, 
without any regard to party ties, to send to oblivion by the 
strength of our ballots any man that comes before us for 
office who is in any manner connected with this corporation. 

Resolved, That we authorize S. M. Boyd to commence 
proceedings in Nebraska and at Washington against said B. 
& M. R. R. Co. for the purpose of compelling them to build 
a line of railroad on their original survey, or that they be 
deprived of the lands received under this pledge. 

Re:::olved, That the people of the United States, look- 
ing for location in Nebraska, are hereby notified that we 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 299 

hold the purchase of said railroad lands to be a dangerous 
bargain for the purchaser. 

Resolved, that these resolutions be published in all 
Nebraska papers, and in three in Iowa, and at least two in 
Illinois. 

Resolutions adopted unanimously. 

It was a swindle on the people of this and western coun- 
ties, to give up half their lands to the rapacious corporation, 
and then not get a mile of the road. 

September 7th— The county commissioners order an 
election on location of county seat, and the editor gives 
them a terrible scolding. 

Report of the election of the new constitution. At this 
time there were seven precincts, as follows: 
Milford, for constitution 122 Against 



Walnut Creek " 37 

Beaver Crossing " 36 

Oak Grove " 33 

Camden " 30 

Sew'ard " 68 

North Blue " 25 



Total 358 Total 12 

First number of Nebraska Reporter is received, and is 
unfavorably commented on, on account of harsh epithets 
and course language used. 

October 5th — S. R. Douglas caught a coon. 

October 19th — The Record has heard of the county seat 
election, and has its w^ar paint on. 

October 25th — "County commissioners have re-districted 
the county into eight districts, as follows: Townships nine 
and ten, range one. form Beaver Creek; townships eleven 
and twelve, Lincoln Creek; township twelve, ranges two and 
three. North Blue; township eleven, ranges two and three, 
Seward; townships nine and ten, range three, Milford; town- 
ships nine and ten, range four, Camden; towaiships eleven 
and twelve, range four. Oak Grove." 

The editor takes a ride over to Beaver Crossing, and 
tinds the new town flourishing. Ross Nichols, Daniel Mills- 
paw, Roland Reed, John E. Fouse, McCauley, John Leonard 



300 HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

and Osborne, are mentioned as thrifty farmers. The new 
mill of Mr. Smith is hig-hly spoken of. Thomas Tisdale's 
store is noted as one of the best store buildin<4"s in the coun- 

October 26th — The election of officers of the county 
agricultural society, at Seward, is noted as occurring on the 
Kith inst. , when W. W. Cox was elected president; Henry 
Wortendyke, vice president; James A. Brown, recording 
secretary; A. L. Strang, corresponding secretary; Robert 
McCrossin, treasurer; directors — E. B. Shafer, J. W. Lee, 
George W. Standard, and Tliomas Graham. 

November 30th — There is a long correspondence from 
Seward about the court house location, wherein Croney, 
Williams (O. T. B.) and Ellsworth, are discussed at large by 
Mortimer. Wm. Hornburg, one of the commissioners, also 
gets a rub. At that time there was a struggle between 
Harris on one side and Cloyd on the other as to where the 
court house should be located. We note in the commissioners' 
meeting of November 21st, that a resolution passed the 
board by the votes of Imlay and Hornburg to accept the prop- 
osition of W. C. Cloyd, to place the court house on block 
35, in Cloyd's addition, JQst west of the M. E. church, pro- 
vided a good title to the property should be made to the 
county without expense. This resolution must have been 
reconsidered at some other and later meeting, for the court- 
house evidently was not placed on that block. 

Dec. 7th — Notice is given that a lodge of Good Templars 
will be instituted at Beaver Crossing, Dec. 16, 1871. 

Dec. 14th — Contains a report from County Superintend- 
ent Prance, from which we glean that during the year 103 
teachers had been examined, seventy-four of whom obtained 
certificates, sixty third grades, and fourteen second grades; 
fifty-two were employed during the year. Superintendent's 
salary, $200. A healthy growth and improvement is noted, 
and inany new school-houses were erected. An appropria- 
tion is recommended for charts, globes, and other fixtures 
for the schools. 

Jan. 4, 1872— The railroad bond proposition gets an over- 
hauling by the editor. 

Jan. 11th — There was a wide-awake meeting at Beaver 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 301 

Crossing, wherein the bond proposition receives the follow- 
ing send-off: 

Resolved, That the county commissioners have disgraced 
themselves in the eyes of the tax-payers, etc., etc. 

Resolved, That this scheme to vote bonds is to aid a mo- 
nopoly, a one-sided railroad affair, a disgrace to the people, 
and a binding curse upon our county, etc. , etc. 

This interesting document was signed by W. J. Thomp- 
son, T. H. Tisdale, and Daniel Millspaw, committee. 

Also notices that Col. Vifquain will stump the county 
against bonds. Bond meetings, pro and con, will be held 
throughout the county. 

' 'Monday last a crowded house voted unanimously against 
bonds. A committee, consisting of W. H. Reed, D. C. Mc- 
Killip, P. J. Goodrich, Ed Healy, and Cummins, were ap- 
pointed to hold meetings for defeat of the bonds." 

The burden of the song for all the weeks prior to the 
election day, February 22nd, is down with the bonds, and on 
that day they dow^ned them. 

We notice among the writers and speakers that were 
conspicuous in opposition to bonds, was Rev. T. N. Skinner. 

Riesult of the election is noted as follows: 
Milford, for bonds 5 votes Against bonds 147 

Camden " 6 " " 138 

130 

135 

3 



60 

9 

Total vote 540 Total 622 

Majority against, 82. 

This ended the first chapter in this desperate sectional 
struggle, with Seward the under dog. 

March 7th — The first issue of the Beaver Tribune, semi- 
monthly paper at Beaver Crossing, is noticed. This was 
published by V. W. Wilson & Co. 

March 11th — A mass meeting of the people of Camden 
is held, in which the county commissioners are handled 



Walnut Creek " 


10 


Beaver Creek " , 


2 


Seward 


232 


North Blue " 


136 


Oak Grove 


47 


Lincoln Creek ' ' 


109 



302 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

without gloves for disfranchising Camden precinct in the 
bond matter. It has always been supposed that a young 
Seward lawyer stole from the clerk's office the returns from 
Camden precinct, and wiien the canvas of the vote was made 
there were no returns from Camden, so the commissioners 
felt obliged to ignore the Camden election, and this Camden 
mass meeting was ready to take up arms, as it seemed that 
ballots had failed. 

Rev. T. N. Skinner heads an epistle to the people, 
"Ballots or Bullets." 

April 3rd — Seward correspondent says another bond 
proposition will be submitted; and also says the commis- 
sionei's will dismiss their county attorney, because he is 
such a consumate liar that they can't believe a word he says; 
and he is also accused of taking fees on two sides of a case. 

Milford money order office shows business for three 
months to be: ' 

Orders issued $2,653 38 

Orders paid 961 61 

Amount deposited 2, 140 00 

^^ — 

Total business ' $5,755 19 

April 4th — Also has the minutes of a mass meeting in 
Seward to express their abhorrence of the idea of stealing 
an election. The meeting resolved that the people of Seward 
firmly believe in a free and untrammeled election, and in 
jealously guarding the purity of the ballet box; and 

"Be it further resolved. That we here assembled ex- 
press our disapprobation of any scheme or plan for the pur- 
pose of defeating the expressed will of the county at the 
late election; and further we are desirous to know the truth 
or falsity of the charges preferred, and will heartily engage 
in any movement to ascertain who are the guilty parties, 
whether in Seward, Camden, or elsewhere, and to bring 
them to merited punishment." Signed by J. N. Beaty, 
Chairman; T. J. Hamilton, Secretary. 

April 18th — Appears a clipping from the Atlas on the 
bond election, in which Prof. Ingham says: "Blessed, yea, 
thrice blessed, are the peace-makers, and most benign would 
be the labors of any, if only successful in allaying that bitter 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 303 

animosity and uncompromising- hostility which excites the 
different sections of our county. This spirit of evil which 
pervades our county, will, we fear, unless exercised by a 
gentle spirit of forbearance and reconciliation, become so 
powerful as to utterly ruin the highests prospects of the 
whole county." The editor of the Atlas takes occasion to 
charge in this article the blame on the old settlers of both 
sections, and charges them with being narrow-minded, etc. 
This waked up a hornet's nest, and the learned professor 
soon heard a tremendous buzzing around his ears, and in a 
subsequent issue he takes everything back, and gets down 
on his knees in good shape to the old settlers; not only asks 
forgiveness, but attempts to '"bring forth fruits meet for his 
repentance," and pitches into Milford like a wild cat, and so 
the battle rages . 

May !^nd — It is noted that the commissioners have di- 
vided Lincoln creek, Oak Grove, and Camden precincts, so 
that there are now eleven. Also, it is noted that Prof. Ing- 
ham has retired from the Atlas, and assumed the roll of in- 
structor. It is also noted that the History of Seward County, 
by O. T. B.Williams, is just out, and was printed at the Rec- 
ord office, which has disgusted many of the Seward people. 
The county superintendent reports thirty male and twenty- 
eight female teachers employed, and an expenditure of $4- 
721.95 between April 3, 1872. Whole number of scholars were 
1,781. Approximate number of inhabitants, 5,203. 

May 9th — The erection of Tuttle's new hotel is noticed 
in the Seward correspondence; also the near completion of 
the Presbyterian church edifice; also a call for the corpora- 
tion election of the town of Seward; also that Miss Lizzie 
McKillip (Mrs. Buck) is engaged for the summer school. 

May 16th — It is noted that the injunction suit against 
commissioners in the railroad bond case is made perpetual 
by Judge Lake, and everybody is satisfied. 

June 13th — Notice of a new railroad bond proposition is 
given. The Seward correspondent calls Hon. Wm. Imlay 
the county commissioners. The same gentleman, whoever 
he was, predicted that the same blunderers would in like 
manner come to grief again. He remarks, no one has any 
idea they will carry. The drowning of Miss Hattie Tift is 



304 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

commented on. She was partially insane. Croney's sale of 
the Reporter is noted, and of Prof. Ingham assuming the 
post of editor again . 

July 4th — The record says, in flaming head-lines: "Stop 
the reaper and protect yourselves," thereby meaning that 
they must stop their work and go and vote against bonds 
again. 

July 11th — The second bond election is reported, in 
wiiich the famous "Mortimer" is buried under an avalanche 
of votes, bonds having carried by a majority of 123 votes. 
It puzzled the editor to know how Seward could swell her 
vote 81 since last February: 

September 19th — The division of Beaver Creek precinct 
is noted. 

September 26th-— The removal of D. C. McKillip is com- 
mented on. 

October 3rd — Specimens of peat from Walnut creek are 
examined and pronounced good. 

October 10th — Reporter has again changed hands. 

October I7th — Two wild deer were seen just west of 
Milford. We also quote: "The second annual fair at Seward 
was a success, with a fine display, especially of stock, and a 
large attendance." 

December 5th — The Record announces the death of Hor- 
ace Greeley, with a fitting eulogy. Mortimer says in the 
same number that a scandalous story is afloat about one of 
our county oificials. This must mean McPherson, county 
treasurer . 

December 12th — A discovery of free lime, phosphates, 
and silicon, a vein twenty-two feet thick. This is on West 
Blue, in sections 7, 8, and 9, in town 9, range 2, east. The 
French leave taken by our county treasurer is reported, with 
a propable loss of five or six thousand dollars. 

December 26th— The action of the county board in the 
removal of the treasurer, McPherson, and the appointment 
of Wm. B. Thorpe, is commented on. 

January 9, 1873 — It is noted that a silver-headed cane 
was voted to W\ W. Cox, as the homeliest man in the coun- 
ty. The same paper notes the scalding of the child of 
Thomas Osborne on Lincoln creek; also the resignation of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 305 

W. J. Thompson as representative; also the removal of E. L. 
Clark, Jr., from the Seward postoftice for embezzlement. 
Said defalcation is said to be about $2,000. L. G. Johns 
was appointed to the place. The apportionment of school 
money to Seward county is, to 1701 pupils, $3,690.07. 

January 16th — Announcement of the election of D. C. 
McKillip, representative, to fill a vacancy. 

January 23rd — School moneys apportioned among fifty- 
nine districts. 

February 13th — It is mentioned that at the commission- 
ers' meeting held on February 3rd, the geographical town- 
ships were made into precincts, and were named for the first 
sixteen letters of the alphabet. The same issue mentions 
four marriages in Seward, viz. : Ethan Atwater, Walter 
Briggs, Mr. Spear, and Andrew Wright. 

March 6th — The bill incorporating Seward is noticed by 
Mortimer, who also says that the railroad track is just being 
laid into Seward. This letter is dated March 4th. Morti- 
mer made a mistake, as the track was complete and the cars 
reached Seward on the evening of March 1, 1873. He also 
notes that Rev. Rockwell preached his farewell sermon to 
the Methodist congregation. 

April 10th — The editor publishes his valedictory. 

We have looked through every page of the files of the 
Record from first to last, and it is our pleasure to say that 
the paper was a credit to the county and the state. While 
the editors worked manfully for the interest of Milf ord in all 
her battles, yet they manifested a gentlemanly and courteous 
attitude towards all. We wish the Record had continued its 
publication. In quoting so liberally from its columns, we 
feel that we are giving bits of history, both interesting and 
profitable, and we hereby extend our warmest thanks to Mr. 
Culver for the use of his files. 



THE NEBRASKA REPORTER 

For almost thirty years the Reporter was a leading ex- 
ponent of republican ideas and a champion of Seward's in- 
terests. It came just about the time when Harris, Moffitt, 
and Robert's addition was platted, and it came to stay a 



306 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

long time, and it did stay. The editor for a time was Charles 
Crony. He came with Mr. James Harris. He was what we 
might call an adventurer. He was a fighter "from away 
back," and rather sensational in his make-up. The Report- 
er lost no time in getting into a quarrel with its contempo- 
rary, the Atlas, and also with the Record. Frequently the 
air was full of sulphurous smoke. The Reporter was in the 
field in time to take part in the last county seat contest, and 
when that was ended it was ready to take a hand in the rail- 
road bond fight. 

The Editor concluded that everything was fair in war, 
and he acted bravely all along that line. The Reporter was 
not designed as an exponent of morals. It was here to win. 
The paper had friends many, and like all aggressive papers, 
it had enemies not a few. When it got into a rumpus with 
its contemporaries or other friends, it made the fur fly in 
all directions. It was amusing to see what a "kilkenny cat 
fight" there was between the editors of that day. All man- 
ner of vile epithets were used, notwithstanding all three pa- 
pers were of the same politics. Early in June, 1872, Crony 
sold out his interest in the Reporter and Prof. O. S. Ingham 
became its editor. The professor only continued at its head 
until October 1st, when he gave up the job and returned to 
the schoolroom. 

Thomas Wolf is now installed as editor. Under Mr. 
Wolf's management, the Reporter was a financial success, 
and as an all round fighter, it was steadily improving. 
There was no truce between the Reporter and Atlas or the 
Record. The removal of the county seat, followed by the 
building of the railroad, made it evident that a paper could 
not be maintained at a jjrofit at Milford, and the Record con- 
sented to give up the ghost at Milford and take a new life at 
Lincoln, being consolidated with the Leader of that city. 
Now the Reporter has only one antagonist. The Atlas has 
turned a somersault in a political way, and seeks the favor 
of the democrats. It was not warmly welcomed in the new 
camp. The democratic brethren surmised that it was a dem- 
ocratic' convert "for revenue only." It was not popular. It 
managed to live until about the time the grasshoppers came, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 307 

in the summer of 1874, when it said farewell to this old 
world, and there were but few mourners. 

Now the Reporter had a clear field for awhile. Of course 
it now had a cinch on the county printing and all the job 
work. With a first class financier at the head, what could 
hinder success? But Thomas made almost too good use of 
his opportunities. The county board soon learned that 
Wolf was not doing the county printing for fun. For about 
three years the Reporter had its own way about all the time 
and had come to the conclusion that Seward county belonged 
to the editor, when all of a sudden there appeared a specter 
in the sky. Rev. Mr. Haw put in an appearance and started 
a new democratic paper. 

The Reporter thought it to be a small fry, and sneered 
at its coming; but one morning it awakened to the fact that 
the Democrat had a bid in for the county printing at just 
half the Reporter's bid. Calamities do not come singly. In 
the month of February, 1877, W. S. Walker, who had been 
schooled amid the snow capped mountains, came to Seward, 
and after looking over the situation concluded that Seward 
needed another republican paper. (He was right, it did.) 
So, the Seward Advocate was launched on the great sea of 
journalism. Mr. Walker was a wide-awake fellow with ex- 
perience and full of "dare-devil" grit. There were several 
bones of contention lying around loose at Seward, and it did 
not take many weeks to get up a newspaper row, and soon 
the air was fairly blue. Clippings from these papers will 
prove very interesting reading. 

Mr. Wolf continued at the head of the Reporter until 
1882. In the meantime, the Advocate had changed hands, 
Mr. J. H. Betzer buying the concern and changing its name 
to the Blade. The bright glimmer of the new Blade had 
about the same effect on the editor of the Reporter as would 
the shaking of a red rag in the face of an angry bull. Betzer 
was no slouch in handling the Blade, which seemed to have two 
sharp edges. The Democrat, under Mr. Haws, did not tar- 
ry very long, and there was no side issue to attract attention, 
and as both Reporter and Blade were born fighting, they 
must fight, as it seemed to be the object of their existence. 
Mr. Wolf retired in 1882, and F. G. Simmons became the 



308 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

editor, and he manao:ed it eighteen years, or until the close 
of its eventful life in February, 1900. When Mr. Simmons 
succeeded to the editorship, the hatchet was buried by him 
and the Blade man, and it was buried where it could never 
more be found; and from that glad day the two valuable pa- 
pers worked in harmony in advancing the best interests of 
the county and the city; and in this they found much more 
congenial and profitable employment than in scratching for 
each other's eyes. Mr. Simmons took the Reporter when he 
was just a young man. Prom the start he showed marked 
ability as a writer, and as an editor he was a success; but 
unfortunately he was like most good writers, in finance he 
was not a success. After a long (and at first stormy) career 
of about thirty years, it died of old age in February, 1900. 
We quote freely from its files so far as they are at command. 
By quoting from the files of our county papers we can give 
a better idea of the growth and progress than by any other 
means at command. 

The following items are taken from the Nebraska Re- 
porter. We regret to say that the earlier files are only frag- 
mentary, most of them are destroyed; but were able to get 
from what we have at command some items of interest: 

December 13, 1872 — The Baptist church is up and nearly 
enclosed. 

A letter from Shoe String Joe complains bitterly of the 
management of the Seward postoftice. He says the P. M. is 
an inveterate novel reader and does not like to be bothered 
by people asking for mail. 

January 4, 1873 — A mush and milk sociable for the bene- 
fit of Rev. J. H. Rockwell was a success, and from fifty to 
sixty dollars were realized. 

Also, that homely man getting the cane is noticed. 

The organization of the Seward Literary Club is noticed, 
of which V. Daniels was chairman, and in which Wm. Leese, 
T. L. Norval, H. C. Page, D. C. McKillip, T. F. Buck, J. 
W. English, and C. P. Dick each figured. 

January 1, 1873 — The New Year's address by O. S. Ing- 
ham is given. 

January 11th — Returns show a total vote of 396 in the 
special election, wherein D. C. McKillip was elected to fill a 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 309 

vacancy, in this legislative district. D. C. M. received 208 
votes and there were three opposing candidates, viz. , Els- 
worth Hamilton, T. J., and Campbell. 

January IMth — The editor is impressed with the number 
of dead torn cats in the streets. 

The marriage of E. M. Spear, of Seward, to Miss May 
R. Newland, of Rochester, N. Y., is noticed. 

May 8th — The charter election of the town of Seward is 
reported as follows, resulting in the election of V. Daniels, 
Sam Stevenson, Herman Diers, Wm. Hays, and T. L. Norvai 
as trustees of the village for the coming year. There were 
93 votes cast. 

May 22nd — The air is tilled with grasshoppers, also that 
work is being pushed on Tishue's store, and the editor says 
we may as well be proud of such a building. Well, we were, 
but have gotten bravely over it. 

The advent of Claudius Jones is welcomed. 

May 29th — The new jail is nearly enclosed. 

It is noted that the grasshoppers are doing some damage 
in a few localities. 

June 12th — Sixty buildings in two months, by actual 
count. 

June 26th — Ed. Ingham gets eloquent over a street fight. 
We. quote: "On the morning of the 21st of June the sun in 
unclouded splendor issued from the pearly portals of the 
Orient to pursue his daily journey through the shining con- 
cave heavens, past the lofty zenith, down to his purple cloud- 
draped ocean couch, behind the western hills," etc. 

July 3rd — The M. P. R. R. depot and water tank are 
about completed. 

Sept. 30th — The county fair is pronounced a success. 

Sept. 4th — Says from one to two hundred loads of grain 
are received daily, and threshing liardly commenced. 

Feb. 1, 1874 — F M. McPherson joins the editorial force 
of the Reporter. 

The marriage of Ethan Atwater is noted. 

The town council is scored for voting a hundred dollars 
to H. C. Cloyd for his pamphlet. 

Feb. 13th— H. T, Clarke is building a bridge west of 
town on the river, 



310 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

The city is full of strangers. 

The organization of the Seward cemetery association is 
noted. 

McPherson, our defaulting treasurer, receives encour- 
agement and is assured that he has plenty of friends. 

May 8th — The editor complains that the Atlas man calls 
him a lunatic. 

Sept. 4th — Dick Norval is building a cozy cage for his 
prospective bird. 

July 31st — School report from district No. 9, with J. A. 
Brown director, shows 139 pupils in the district; enrolled 66, 
present t/hat day 44; average attendance 33. 

The following was clipped from the Toledo Blade: 

"Out at Seward, Nebraska, they build houses for editors 
in about eight days. The editor of the Reporter gave an 
order for a residence to a building firm, and in less than two 
weeks the editor moved into the house, and his wife im- 
mediately presented him with a fine pair of twin babies. 
They do things up in a hurry in Nebraska." 

The above clippings are not in their regular order, but 
they were jotted down from miscellaneous papers. 

Nov. 15, 1878— Total vote cast in "G" precinct, 286, of 
which Judge Lake received all but one for judge of the su- 
preme court. Total vote of county 1156, of which Judge 
Lake received 1130. 

Nov. 22nd — Discusses in detail the street fight at Utica, 
which occurred some days before, in which railroaders 
and citizens exercised the pugilistic ability. Also, a stab- 
bing affray northwest of the city, in which the Manning 
boys stabbed Frank Slonecker five times with a pocket 
knife. In the same paper it is noted that township organi- 
zation carried by a large majority. Also the result of the 
liquor damage case of Eliza Perkins, wherein she gains a 
judgment of $3000 against three saloons (this is the first case 
of the kind ever tried in the state) for selling her husband 
liquor and thereby causing his death. 

Dec. 6th— We notice that R. R. Shick sold, in 1873, 
bonds for school district No. 46, (now the Purdum district) 
$1000 for $750, in order to build the little frame school house. 
We quote the above to show just how our people were bled 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 311 

in the early days by capitalists. These bonds were ten per 
cent bonds and run for ten years. 

April 10, 1879 — School census shows in district No. 9, 
Seward, four hundred and eighty-nine school children. The 
same census gives the total population of the city at 1,250 
and of the entire district at 1,666. 

April 17th — Is noted the financial condition of the city. 
Amount on hand April 22, 1878, $68.14; collection to date," 
$1,101.11; paid out, $885.86; balance on hand, $283.29. 

April 24th —Chronicles the arrest of P. B. Thompson 
for robbing the mails in the Seward postoffice. 

May 12th — Gives Orlando J. Gassier 's autobiography. 
We will not quote it. 

May 22nd — A full history of the execution is given. 

May 29th — Is noticed the purchase of the tire apparatus, 
chemical engine with hooks and ladders. 

June 5th — The triumph of the A. & N. bonds is dwelt 
on at large. The total vote cast on county bonds was 1,798. 

The commencement of Goehner block, on the corner of 
7th and Seward streets, is noted. Also Henigan & Ashton's 
meat market on the east side. 

June 26th — The injunction suit commenced by Claudius 
Jones against the commissioners in the matter of issuing 
bonds to the Lincoln & Northwestern company is fully com- 
mented on, with severe strictures. 

The arrest of Isaac Whitman for making counterfeit fif- 
ty cent pieces is announced. His factory was a dugout near 
West Mills. He worked over pewter and ground glass and 
was doing a thriving business. 

July 10th — We clip the following from the description 
of the Fourth of July celebration parade. It speaks for it- 
self, and shows to what extremes people can be led in hours 
of wild excitement. We trust those responsible for this 
scene have long since become ashamed of it: 

"An immense hog, which some of the people mi.stook 
for an African elephant instead of a Seward county swine, 
on each side of its back were hung large letters 'B. & M.' 
A gaudily arrayed man was leading this hog by a strong 
rope, and this disguised personage was labeled 'U. P.' Pol- 
lowing the hog came a man with a large shovel on his 



312 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

shoulder, with his hat festooned, 'Banker,' and carrying a 
banner on which was inscribed the device, 'I do the dirty 
work for this hog, but it pays. ' 

"A large caricature representing first the figure of 
a man striking a lively gait, holding in his hand a roll in- 
scribed, 'Injunction,' which he is handing to an attendant 
near, accompanied with the exclamation, 'My only refuge is 
Salt Lake — serve this.' Following comes a woman with a 
carpet sack, and hanging to the coat tails of the first de- 
scribed figure, exclaiming, 'Run, I smell tar!' In hot pur- 
suit comes a crowd in the distance carrying buckets marked 
tar, and feather beds. On the other end of this large stan- 
dard was a large sleek man who had 'U. P.' on his hat, and 
held a rope that had been tied around a partly finished man 
inscribed 'A. & N.,' but the rope was broken in trying to 
hold the 'A. & N.' man, and the 'U. P.' figure exclaiming, 
'the A. & N. must be stopped at all hazards.' " 

Also, the departure of Claudius Jones and family for 
Salt Lake is noted. 

July 24th— It is noted that Fred D. Grant, a young lad 
living in N precinct, was killed by being dragged by a runa- 
way horse. 

July 31st — Says the contracts for the Norval block are 
completed. 

Also, the death of Mrs. M. W. Warner, in M precinct, 
which occurred July 23d, 1879. This lady was the former 
wife of our late school superintendent. 

Aug. 7th — It is reported that $60,000 had been received 
for freight at the B. & M. depot in Seward during the year 
ending July 31st, 1H79. 

Oct. 16th Is noticed at length the shooting by accident 
of Miss Lizzie Welty, which resulted in the death of a noble 
young woman. 

Also the completion of the railroad to Milford. 

Oct. 23d — The visit and speech of Hon. De La Matyr is 
commented on. 

Nov. 6th — Is noted the completion of the A. & N. road, 
and the visit of fifty distinguished citizens of Lincoln. 

Nov. 13th — It is mentioned that the following two-story 
brick buildings have been erected during the season: Heni- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 313 

gan & Ashton's, John Cattle, Sen., Goehner Bros.' engine 
house, Bischof s, John Roberts', and Nerval Bros. 

Dec. 15th-- We tind an estimate of the corn crop of that 
year as follows: 2,300,000 bushels. The highest reported 
yield was eighty-five bushels per acre. In the same article 
it was estimated that tlie reduction in freight, consequent 
upon the building of the A. & N. R. K., was three cents per 
bushel, or $69,000 on the crop of that year. According to 
our memory the estimate was rather low than high. It was 
a noteworthy fact that the Seward grain dealers of that fall 
and winter were able to pay from three to five cents more 
for corn than any town on the main line of the B. & M. west 
of Lincoln . 

Jan. 8, 1888 — The founding of Staplehurst and the ship- 
ment of eight cars of corn is recorded. Also the death of 
Mrs. Thomas Best, at Pleasant Dale, which occurred Dec. 
18, 1879, aged sixty years. 

We also append from its columns, the following useful 
information: 

"Edmund Mclntyre has made the following statement 
for the B. & M. Land Department of the acreage and yield 
of cultivated lands in Seward county for 1879: 

"Total acres in county, 368,640; under cultivation, 109,- 
590 acres: in rye, 1,283 acres, yield 19,240 bushels; in spring 
wheat, 43,825 acres, yield 482,362 bushels; in barley (must be 
a mistake, too many acres or not enough barley), 8,900 acres, 
yield 170,800 bushels; in oats, 5,718 acres, yield 227,720 bush- 
els; in buckwheat, 112 acres, yield 2,240 bushels; in flax, 2,- 
109 acres, yield 18,981 bushels; in broom corn, 160 acres, 
yield 53i tons; in corn, 46,584 acres, yield 2,096,280 bushels; 
in potatoes, 966 acres, yield 36,840 bushels; in turnips, 28 
acres, yield 4,200 bushels; in blue grass, 17 acres; in timothy, 
1,272 acres; clover, 1,189 acres; cultivated timber, 4,500 acres. 
Number of apple trees 30,500, pears 300, peaches 26,450, 
plums 8,000, cherries 16,000, grapes 33,000 vines; 175 miles 
of hedges. 

"These estimates are made on the returns of 1877 and 
estimates of the proportionate increase." 

Sept. 9th— Is recorded the death of E. N. Wingfield, of 
K precinct, aged seventy-five years. His death occurred 



314 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Sept. 4, 1880. Mr. W. was a worthy Christian, and a mem- 
ber of the M. E. church. 

Aujj-. r2th — The dedication of the U. B. church by Bishop 
Wright is favorably mentioned. 

Also the death of Robert Walker, at the residence of his 
son James, aged seventy-seven years. The deceased was 
one of our old settlers, and was the father of W. H. Walker 
of our city. He was well known and highly respected. 

Also, in D precinct, Aug. 2d, Henry Newjahr, of cancer, 
aged fifty- five years. He was one of the first settlers of that 
part of the county. 

Aug. 25th — The editor, speaking of his contemporary, 
calls him "the bay- windowed, brazen-faced liar." 

July 29th— Is recorded the death of Mrs. L. E. Tisdale, 
of Beaver Crossing, aged forty-five years. Mrs. Tisdale 
settled in Seward county in 1869. Her death occurred July 
23d. Also the death of John S. Bartlett, at Milford, on July 
25th, aged thirty six years, of quick consumption. 

June 10th — Records the freaks of the wind, the heaviest 
gale in many years, in which the Catholic church was par- 
tially wrecked, and many buildings damaged. 

"Feb. 19, 1880— Is recorded the death of Wilber McNall, 
by accidental shooting. 

April 8, 1880 — Records the result of city election, in 
which the anti-license party elects the whole ticket. 

April 22d — Also records the death of Ira Wendall, caused 
by getting his hand caught in machinery at West's mill. 
Deceased leaves a wife and two children to mourn his sad 
fate. 

May 6th, 1880~Is recorded the death of Mrs. Joseph H. 
Ballard, after a long and painful illness. Mrs. Ballard was 
an estimable Christian lady. 

The visit and lecture of ex-Vice President Colfax is dis- 
cussed at large. 

The small-pox scare with its attendant results is noted. 



ADVOCATE 

PREDECESSOR OF THE BLUE VALLEY BLADE 

Was founded in February 1877, by W. 8. Walker, and 
managed by him until June 1879, when J. H. Betzer from 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 315 

Iowa bought the paper and re-christened it Blue Valley 
Blade. The advent of the Advocate was understood by the 
contemporary paper at Seward, as an open declaration of 
war, and of course the fun commenced immediately and con- 
tinued as long as Mr. Wolf of the Reporter continued to ed- 
it that paper. Mr. Walker was a wide-awake editor, ready 
at all times to measure sw^ords with an advisary. We much 
regret that files of the Advocate are beyond our reach, as 
the Editor took them out of the State with him. 

The Blade was under the control of an old republican 
war-horse, and fighting was no new thing for Mr. Betzer. 
He could fight democrats or brother editors, as the case 
might be. He had been schooled in the editorial work in 
Iowa, where he controlled a paper sixteen years, at Chari- 
ton and Monroe, and he came to Seward county well equip- 
ed, and was ready with his new bright and sharp blade to 
take a hand in the little embrolios of that period. The edi- 
tors of that day did not stop at wrangling over public 
questions, but would frequently resort to personal matters, 
and heap all manner of abuse upon each other. We ar^ glad 
that in these better days such personal slang is not tolerat- 
ed among the editorial fraternity. Mr. Betzer continued at 
the head of the Blade until October, 1901, when his health 
failed and he gave the editorial work and management over 
into the hands of his son, Elmer E., w^ho has conducted the 
paper to the present time. In the liberal quotations from 
its columns a good idea may be gained of events for the 
twenty-seven years of its life. 



BEAVER CROSSING NEWSPAPERS 

There have been many attempts to publish new^spapers 
in Seward and in other parts of the county that proved un- 
successful ventures. The first attempt at publishing a paper 
at Beaver Crossing was in March, 1872, when a semi-monthly 
called the Beaver Tribune, was issued by J. H. Vincent. 
The printing was done by J. H. Culver at Milford. It lived 
but a few months. 

The Beaver Crossing Bugle was founded by H. C. Hensel 
April 27th, 1887. In its day it w^as one of the largest weekly 
county papers in the state, being an eight page seven column 



316 HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

paper. It was republican in xDolitics. The Bugle notes made 
the wild woods ring for two years. Its life was active and 
energetic, but the editor bit oif more than he could chew and 
after about two years of struggle its blasts were heard no 
more. It just died. It was also printed at Milford, 

In 1H8U, P. C. Carpenter started the Beaver Crossing 
Journal, the first paper printed in the town. It was sold to 
C. E. Miller in 1891, and the name was changed to Farmer's 
Patriot and in 1892 it again was sold to J. H. Waterman and 
it has been under his management up to December, 1904, un- 
der the name of the Weekly Review. At this writing Mr. 
Waterman has sold the office and fixtures to F. C. Diers who 
will now begin the publication of the Pride of Beaver Cross- 
ing. 

We are under obligations to B. F. Thompson for much 
valuable information in regard to the above named news- 
papers. 



UTICA SUN 



The only newspaper of that thriving village was founded 
by Frank Compton, in 1886. It changed hands many times. 
Among the men that have controlled it we find Wm. Compton, 
Steven Lowley, E. W. Harvey, then again Wm. Compton, 
and after his death his widow, H. M. Smith, L. R. Alphin 
and has finally landed in the hands of Harvey iind Hunter, 
who have the most complete job office in the county. Every- 
thing seems in perfect order in their connnodious office. The 
Sun is neutral in nothing but politics. The ambition of the 
editors is to build up Utica and the county, and so far as 
politics is concerned, they don't care which wins so that the 
Sun shines all O. K. 



FARMER'S ZEITUNG 
Farmer's Zeitung is a German family newspaper of high 
order, and has a wide circulation in Seward, Butler, Lan- 
caster and York counties. It is non-partisan and lends all 
its efforts to the betterment of its many readers, and their 
advancement financially, socially and morally. The chief 
object of the wide-awake young editor, Mr. Joseph Tagwer- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 317 

ker, is to infuse into all his readers a hi^h standard of Amer- 
ican citizenship. This young man was born and grew to 
manhood in Austria and came to make his home in this new 
land of greater promise, in 1890. He is now thirty-five years 
of age, just in the prime of life, full of energy, and a future 
full of bright promise. 



INDEPENDENT'DEMOCRAT 
CLIPPINGS 

March 11, 1897— W. H. Smith took charge of the Sew- 
ard County Democrat, and from its files beginning at that 
date we clip from its pages by the courtesy of the editor and 
manager: 

March 6, 1897 — The annual conference of the U. B. 
church convened at Seward. About one hundred delegates 
are present. Bishop E. P. Kephart presides. Blue river is 
on a rampage. 

March 7— Is noted the advent of the first robin. Death 
of Mrs. Amerilla Ford is noticed as occurring March 1st. 
Local mai'kets. Wheat 60cts., corn lOcts , oats lOcts., hay 
$3 to $4 per ton, hogs $3 to $3.25 per hundred, eggs 8cts. 

March 25 — Is notice of a sale of a quarter of land one of 
the best in town twelve, range one, at $3500. Car load of 
horses bought for Boston market, ])rices ranged from $40 to 
$75. 

April 1 — Ray Vance was killed at Utica while attempt- 
ing to board a moving train on Friday last. Superintendent 
Ed Healy reports the schools of the county in a good, flour- 
ishing condition. Roads are reported the worst ever seen 
in the county. Burglary of C. Kroeger's shoe store occur- 
red last Tuesday night and got away with about $30 worth 
of goods. 

April 8 — South Blue is overflowing its banks. 

April 15 — Milford goes dry this year. Wm. Winegar, 
the Tamora horse thief, goes to tiie pen. 

April 22 — Is noticed the fatal accident that befell the 
boy of Laren Jensen near Germantown. The boy was thrown 
from a stalk cutter and killed. 



318 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

April 29 — The finest rain storm for many years fell last 
Friday. Bad R. R. wreck at Pleasant Dale. 

April 22 — James Maroney, an old pioneer died. 

May 6 —Postmaster Dupin's house burglarized of a 
hundred dollars. 

May 20 — L. J. Groul was killed by lightning at Goeh- 
ner Friday night. 

June 23 — A young cyclone just missed Seward. Demo- 
crat and Independent consolidated June 17th. 

July 29 — Chris Hippie was killed by lightning three miles 
south of Germantown last Tuesday. 

August 12 — Charles France, proprietor of Windsor 
hotel, died last Monday morning. August 8th, John Fend- 
er's barn in "B" precinct was burned with twelve horses. 

Sept. 15th — A most successful county fair opened at 
Seward. 

Nov. 4th — Death of Henry George noted. The I. D. 
has a big rooster crowing over the election of Judge Sulli- 
van. 

Nov. 11th — Gives election returns, showing the fusion 
ticket elected in the county by 372 majority. 

Nov. 18th— The ten year old son of Mr. Minsell of "H" 
precinct, was accidentally shot and killed last Friday. Cald- 
er & Co.'s safe was cracked last Tuesday night, at Tamora. 

Dec. 1st — Death of John Roberts, Sr. , one of the early 
pioneers of the county, having located here in the spring of 
186(5. 

Jan. 21st, 1898 — The accidental shooting of the twelve 
year old son of Joseph Manwiler at Utica, which occurred 
some days previous. New court house proposition is agitat- 
ed by W. R. Dickinson, $50,000 bonds are advocated. 

Jan. 27th — A $10,000 Government postoffice is urged 
by Congressman Stark. 

March I7th — Notice is given that the splendid, new 
cereal mills will open up for business the coming week. 

April 7th — The Shilo veterans held a splendid reunion 
at Seward and all went home happy. 

April 21st — Independent-Democrat enlarged. 

May 12th — Is noticed at large a grand reception by the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 319 

people of Seward to Troop "A" when two thousand citizens 
gave them a grand welcome. 

June 23d — Emil Martsen was drowned at Beaver 
Crossing in mill pond, last Sunday morning. 

July 4th — Was a gala day in Seward. Splendid crowd 
and excellent time. 

July 15th — Is noted that w^hile the funeral of Mrs. 
Reed Pendall was in progress, four miles north-east of 
Seward, that the residence of J. C. Ford in the same neigh- 
borhood was burned. 

Nov. 8th — I. D. has his big rooster again crowing over 
the fusionists' victory. 

Nov. 24th — A bad blizzard of the Sunday previous is 
noted. 

Wm. Morford died in "N" precinct, January 10th, 1899. 
He was a prominent farmer. 

Jan. 26th — Two safes cracked in Tamora, Calder's and 
P. L. Webster's. Nothing of much value obtained. 

Feb. 9th — The dead body of a tramp was found near 
the railroad at Pleasant Dale. A bottle partly filled with 
alcohol lay near the body. Coroner's jury thought man froze 
to death, as the w^eather was severe. 

Feb. 16th — Fred Vaihtman was run down and killed by 
cars at Tamora. 

March 2nd — Burglers broke into Ed Batchelder's hard- 
ware store at Bee and carried away a lot of knives and razors. 
They then broke into Meyers & Gambel's store, but were 
scared away. 

March 16th — The death of Ed Biggs, a Seward attor- 
ney, is noted at length. 

March 30th — The I. D. changed its form and was 
made an eight page paper. 

April 15th---Conrad Reusch committed suicide at 
Pleasant Dale. 

April 27th---News of the wounding of Egbert Humph- 
rey, in the Philippines, is recieved by his parents. 

May 4th---The house of David Bender at Milford was 
robbed and $40 secured. 

May 12th---Market reports show wheat worth 50cts, 
corn 23cts, eggs 9cts, hogs $3.25. 



320 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

May 18th— It is noted that I. D. Neihartis preparing 
to build a new hotel. 

May 25th — $8,000 county bonds are called in and paid. 

June 1st — Ten graduate from the high school. This 
was the 18th annual commencement. 

June 8th— The death of Patrick Welch of "D" precinct 
is noted. Mr. Welch was an old settler and a splendid citi- 
zen. 

July bth — Last Sunday five young men were killed by 
lightning in the road north of Staplehurst. Their names are 
as follows: Victor and Ira Dob.son, John Ames, Thomas 
Bidwell and Herman Egars. They were traveling in a 
wagon. No celebration in Seward this year. 

July I3th — Harry Culver's long bicycle ride from Lin- 
coln to New York City, via Texas, New Orleans, Mobile, 
Atlanta, Washington D. C, a distance of 4120 miles. Time 
53 days. The old Saratoga hotel of Milford burned last 
Saturday morning. 

July 23d — Hon. Wm. R. Davis was called home. 

Aug. 17th — A bad hail storm struck near Staplehurst, 
and cut a swath about two miles wide as far as Germantown. 
It did much damage. Bemis' 40 acres tomatoes, east of Se- 
ward were nearly destroyed. H. M. Bower's large field of 
melons were also destroyed. S. H. Beaver had 300 lights 
broken in his green house at Seward. Corn was badly 
damaged in the path of storm. 

Aug. 24th — S. C. Langworthy was stricken with apo- 
plexy on Saturday last. 

Aug. 30 — Notes the arrival of the corpse of Sainuel 
Manly, who was killed in Montanna by a wild broncho which 
he was riding. 

Sept. 7 — Notes that the returning Philippine soldiers had 
a royal welcome at Seward. 

Sepl 14 — John C. Johnson was killed instantly while 
putting a belt on a threshing machine near Geohner. 

Sept. 28 — The great Bryan meeting of last Monday, when 
five thousand people greeted the candidate for president. 
Mrs. Mary A. White, near Utica, committed suicide by taking 
strychnine. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 321 

Oct. 5 — Six thousand dollars county bond paid. County 
fair is pronounced a success. 

Oct. 12 — Chas. Priest in '"H" Precinct was killed by 
falling from a load of lumber. Mrs. Helen M. Gouger is 
booked for a speech at Milford for Oct. 21 in the interest of 
the Fusion ticket. 

Nov. 9 — The I. D. has its roosters crowing over a clean 
victory for Fusion in the county. Ex-governor Altgeld 
made a speech at Seward last Friday. 

Nov. 16 — The death of Wm. O. Pierce occured last Fri- 
day . He was one of the very first settlers of Seward. 

Nov. 23— The death of Egbert Humphry of Nebraska 
First is noted. He died of wounds received in the service. 

Nov. 30— $3000 more county bonds taken up. 

Dec. 21 — Seward county's share of state school funds is 
$5,500.84 

Jan. 4, 1900- The death of Mrs. Lewis Anderson, Dec. 
29, 1899. She had resided in this community since 1868. 

Jan. 10 — The golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. I. E. 
McPheley. 

Feb. 1 — The golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. John 
Slonecker on last Thursday is noted among the Tamora 
items . 

Feb. 8 — The scalding to death of a two-year-old child of 
Herman Langner on last Friday. 

Feb. 15 — Fred Frebse, an old settler in "P" precinct, 
was thrown from his wagon and instantly killed last Tues- 
day. David H. Figard and Mrs. W. W. Cox, two of the old- 
est settlers in this communty, died on the 14th inst. 

Feb. 22 — P. G. Simmons' trouble is noted at length. 
Fire in Wm. Shultz shoe store nearly destroyed the stock on 
the 20th inst. 

March 1 — Burglers got in their work at Staplehurst. 
They were in Forster's store and Maden's drugstore, alsoH. 
Meyer's store. They got about $15. The death of Mrs. S. 
H. Beaver occurred Feb. 24. 

March 8— The three year old child of Mr. L. G. Sov- 
ereign of Ruby, was burned to death last Monday evening. 

March 6 — Occurred the death of C. F. Schlueter. 



322 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

March 29th — Notes the death of Wm. J. Compton, editor 
of Utica Sun, which occurred last Tuesday. 

April 12th — It is noted that the claims of the government 
against F. G. Simmons, is fully paid up. The death of Mrs. 
M. J. Mesler, occurred last Tuesday. 

April 26th — Joseph Cams and Wm Gannon had a lively 
scrap. 

May 3d — Burglars looted Staplehurst bank, last Monday 
morning, and carried away $1350. Benjamin Hunkins, one 
of the oldest men and among the first citizens of "M" precinct 
died April 27th, aged ninety years. 

May 10th — Lewis Mofiitt makes a proposition to donate 
his lands to the county for a court house. 

May 10th Has an ad. Twenty bushels of potatoes for 
sale at lOcts per bushel. 

May 24th — Is noted the death of Scott L. Larson, one of 
our boys at the Philippines. 

May 31st — Schools have just graduated a class of twelve. 
Decoration day is appropriately celebrated.- 

June 7th — $12,000 county bonds are paid off. 

June 28th— A train of cavalry horses. Seventeen cars 
passed Seward on the w^ay to Manilla, last Friday night. 

July 4th — A splendid celebration at Seward. Leon 
Richardson w^as killed by lightning last Wednesday. 

July 12th — A bad hail storm sweeps the north part of 
the county. Lizzie Gray was killed by a runaway horse in 
"B" precinct, July 16th Lewis Mofiitt died. 

July 26th — Says the Seward firemen were "strictly in it" 
at the York tournamant. Seventeen head of cattle killed by 
one bolt of lightning, for Elisha Cortright. 

Aug. 2nd — Elevator burned at Germantown on last Fri- 
day night. A robbery of John Koehler's house at same time 
is noted. 

Aug. 9th— The sudden death of Mrs. Alice Gillespie. 
She was a daughter of S. C. Longworthy. Herman Diers is 
assaulted by a stranger. 

Aug. 16th — A bad blaze in the Butler block. Chas. 
Means killed by lightning, near Tamora, on Saturday last. 

Aug. 23d — Sixty-seven business men of Seward had an 
excursion to Omaha last Monday. Last week the worst 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 328 

storm of twenty years passed over the south part of the 
county. 

Aug. 30th — Seward county fair is pronounced a grand 
success. 

Oct. 4th — Is noted that "Teddy the Terror" sweeps 
down on Seward. A bad explosion occurred in Egar's store 
at Beaver Crossing, injuring three persons. 

Oct. 11— E. E. Mitchell was killed by lightning October 
1st, six miles northeast of Gennantown. David Reavy, of 
Utica, died, Oct. 10th, aged seventy-two years. 

Oct. 25th — Fred Goehner, Jr., faced a revolver in the 
hands of a burglar in his Uncle's store, last Tuesday night. 

Nov. Hth — The I. D. has no rooster crowing this time, 
but meekly acknowledges that McKinley is elected. 

Nov. 15th — Notes the accidental death of John Wright 
at Milford mills, last Thursday morning. Official count 
gives ttie whole fusion ticket a majority in Seward county. 

Nov. 22d— Dickinson Bros. 'barn in Seward, burned Fri- 
day night. It was occupied by Birney Wise, who lost heavily 
without insurance. The city council contracts for the big 
well. 

Nov. 23d — Silver wedding of O. E. Bernecker and wife. 

Dec. 13th — The marriage of Thos. H. Wake and Miss 
Emma Jones is noted. 

Dec. 20th — Personal taxes collected in 1900 to date is 
about $38,000. 

Jan. 17, 1901 — The Nebraska Firemen are in convention 
at Seward and having an interesting time. 

Jan. 24th — Is notice of the death of W. B. Barrett, one 
of the oldest business men of Seward. Came to Seward in 
the spring of 1872. He died Jan. 20th. 

Jan. 31st — Census reports of the county are given by 
precincts as follows: 

"A" 543, "B" 771, "C" 984, "D" 633, "E" 1,145, "F" 
823, "G" 772, "H" 889, "I" 769, "J" 816, "K" 712, "L" 701, 
"M" 1,263, "N" 717, "O" 1,570, "P" 612, Seward 1,970. 
Villages are as follow: Staplehurst 211, Utica 487, Tamora 
139, Germantown 194, Beaver Crossing 359, Cordovia 140, 
Milford 542. Jacob Graff of K precinct died of cancer of 
the face. 



324 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Feb. 7th — The worst blizzard of the year occured last 
Saturday and Sunday. 

Feb. 14th — Mrs. H. Hans, an old settler of Germantown, 
died on the 8th inst. The remains, of Scott Larson, who 
died in the Philippines, arrived today. 

Feb. 28th — Two old settlers of the northwest part of the 
county, viz: Cnris. Nieman and Conrad Rienmiller died 
some days ago, date not given. 

March 7th— $6,000 bonds paid off. 

March 14th Samuel M. Welch, one of our old pioneers, 
died, March 10th. 

April 4th — Death of Mrs. R. A. Hughes, occurred in 
Seward, March 28th. Harry Bradley is noticed as "Gov." 
Harry Bradley by the I. D. 

April 11th — Jacob B. Courtwright died at his home in 
"N" precinct on April 1st. Mr. Courtwright was one of our 
most valuable citizens. Mrs. C. E. Archer, of Staplehurst, 
died April 3d. She was one of our old settlers, who came 
to Nebraska in the very early territorial days, and resided 
in Seward county since 1873. 

April 18th — Mrs. Christianah Obermeyer met death 
by an open gas jet in an Omaha hotel. Her home was at 
Beaver Crossing. 

April 25th— The little son of Chas. Dingham got his 
clothes on fire and was burned to death. G. L. Kilpatrick 
for many years the efficient surveyer of Seward county died 
last Monday night, at Crete, where he had been for treat- 
ment. 

May 2nd — The death of Wm. D. Bowers is noticed at 
length. J. F. Merritt's death is also noticed. 

May 9th J. H. Devore was shot in Denver by his moth- 
er-in-law. Local market: wheat uOcts, corn 34, oats 24, eggs 
9. 

May 23d— John Tucker drowned himself in Connelley's 
fish pond, five miles west of Seward. Eleven coaches full of 
Lincoln students visit Seward on Friday last, over. 700 of 
them. 

May 30th — $6,000 more old county bonds paid. Decora- 
tion day was properly observed. Philip Bick is found dead 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 325 

in the vault of the Brewing Go's, building near the Elk- 
horn depot. 

June 6th —The high school turns out thirteen graduates. 

June 20th — Tim Lacker is drowned while fishing in 
Blue river, near Milford, on Sunday morning. 

Bishop Bonacum is hissed and jeered by the lookers on 
at court in Seward. 

June 27th — A great German picnic was held at fair 
grounds, last Sunday. Several new concrete walks and 
crossings, near the square, are ordered by the city council. 
Wheat harvest has commenced. 

July 4th — Seward county property is assessed at $2,608,- 
880. 

July 11th — Three barns in one neighborhood burn one 
night, in Seward, viz: P. N. Paiks, Mrs. Bonds and Mrs. 
Al Edwards. Parks' horse perished. 

July 11th— The little son of Mrs. B. Robottom, south of 
Germantown, was killed by the kick of a horse. The third 
court house proposition is discussed. Milford took the 
Fourth of July crowd and had a grand time. 

July 18th — The Seward Fire boys cut a big swath at the 
tournament at Fremont. Weather report shows July 8th 
100; 9th 102; 10th 102; 16th and 17th 104. 

July 25th — Court house knocked out to the tune of 335 
majority against. August Kortge, a citizen of Seward for 
many years, found dead in his bed in Lincoln. Sunday was 
a scorcher, thermometer was 105 in the shade. 

Aug. 1st — A soaking rain breaks a drouth of twenty- 
three days. 

Aug. 15th — The Woodmen have a great picnic of Kansas 
and Nebraska members. Jacob Imig's barn southwest of 
Seward burned; four horses and a vast amount of grain was 
consumed. 

Aug. 22d. — J. A. Dowding's jewelry store was burglar- 
ized and ten gold watches were taken in the noon hour. 

Aug. 29th — Seward county fair is a grand success. 

Sept. 19th— Memorial services in honor of Pres. Mc- 
Kinley was attended by a vast throng at M. E. church; 

Qct. 3d— -$3000 more county bonds paid, 



326 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Oct. 10th. — A collision occurred in the B. & M. yards and 
a general smash up resulted in injuring two stockmen. 

Oct. I7th — Orlando Casler's farm was to be sold at sher- 
iff's sale to -pay costs of his execution. 

Nov. 7th — A mixed county ticket elected. 

Dec. 12th — Milford depot burned last night. 

Jan. 23d, 1902 — Treasurer's reiiort shows $28,704 in the 
treasury. 

Jan. 30th — The heaviest snow storm of the winter oc- 
curred last Saturday. 

Feb. 6th — Mrs. S. B. Clark, an old time resident died 
Feb. 1. Advent church dedicated last Sunday. Robert Mc- 
Crossin, an old time settler of Seward county, died at the 
Soldiers' Home last Sunday. 

Feb 20th — Alf. Melick was accidentally shot and killed 
at Pleasant Dale last Friday. 

Feb. 27th — Farmers' Institute, just closed at Tamora, 
was a grand success. Forty-seven new members just re- 
ceived into the Workman lodge last Tuesday. 

March 13th — Judge J. W. Dupin died last Saturday. He 
was an old resident, coming to Seward in 1870. He had oc- 
cupied many official positions in the county; county clerk, 
county judge, postmaster, etc. Joseph D. Woods, father of 
Wm. Woods, died at Stromburg last Sunday. He was years 
ago a resident of Seward. Mrs. Carrie Nation was at Sew- 
ard and demolished Judge Holland with her little hatchet. 

March 27th — Judge Geo. W. Lowley died. Had been a 
resident of the county for thirty-two years, (see sketch on 
another page) Mrs. Anna Skeede was found dead this 
morning. She had wandered away in a delirium. 

April 17th — Wm. Schluckeber died April 10, near Goehner. 
A. P. E. O. society was organized at Seward last Tuesday 
evening. 

May 8th — Good rains breaking the drouth is noted. 
The new telephone to Staplehurst and Tamora from Sew- 
ard are completed. 

May 22d — The remains of Oba Gibb were found in the 
river near Staplehurst last Monday. 

May 2i:)th — Three hundred University Cadets visited 
Seward yesterday. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 327 

June 5 — The decoration exercises were attended by an 
immense crowd May 30. The '20th high school commence- 
ment occurred last Tliursday evening. Eight graduates. 

June 19 — Grocers and butchers of Lincoln had a picnic 
at the Fair grounds last Tuesday. 950 of them came on two 
trains. Mrs. Maria Konkright died in Seward last Friday. 
Mrs. F. L. Remington died June 12. Great Sunday School 
convention was held last week at Beaver Crossing. 

June 26 — The double tragedy occurred at Seward in 
which John Haud is shot to death and Alex Lange shoots 
himself and died yesterday afternoon Notice account of 
tragedy on another page. 

July 3 — Luke Agur died last Friday at Exeter and was 
brought to Seward for burial. Mr. Agur was an old citizen 
of the county, came to Marysville and built a mill in 1H75. 
S. Adler, an old time merchant, died at Hot Springs, South 
Dakota. 

July 10 — Celebration at Seward on the Fourth was a 
success. 

July 31 — Big A. O. U. W. picnic was held at the Fair 
grounds last Tuesday. 

Aug. 14 — The city was looted by a gang of roughs, fol- 
lowing the races. Last night seven houses were robbed, the 
amount stolen aggregates $99-1.80. John Cattle. Jr., died in 
England yesterday. One of Seward's bankers for many years. 
Micheal Auwender, a carjjenter fell from Becktel's barn and 
broke his neck last Friday. Dr. Leland Walker of Utah, 
the tirst doctor that ever faced the winter storms of Seward 
county, is here on a visit. 

Sept. 5 — Mrs. F. C. Shoemaker, an old resident of the 
county, died near Staplehurst on Saturday last. 

Sept. 7 — German Evangelical church at Goehner dedi- 
cated. 

Oct. 16 — A bad wreck on the B. & M. near Boyes mill 
last Monday night. Two freights collided. Eight cattle 
were killed and the cars were badly demolished. One tire- 
man bruised. Dr. James H. Woodward the pioneer doctor 
of the county died Oct. 8. Had been a resident in the county 
since the early seventies. A man of wide research and 
experience in his profession. 



328 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Oct. 23 — Mrs. Jennie, wife of Dr. Cummins died Oct. 14. 

Nov. 5 — No rooster up although election is over. 

Dec. 11 — Money on deposit in banks of Seward county 
is $1,000,000. 

Dec. 18 — Seward city has made second payment on 
bonds of $1,000. 

Dec. 18 — Mrs. H. L. Davie, a long time a resident of 
Utica died at Seward last Friday, Jan. 1, 1903. The I. D. 
gives a large illustrated edition of the paper. 

Jan. 8 — Mrs. May A. Hubbard of Utica was found dead 
in her bed last Monday morning. Yesterday the Burlington 
had 106 cars of Milford ice on track at Milford. 

Jan. 15 — A fire in Diers block last Monday morning. 
Narrow escape for the whole block. Thanks to the firemen. 

Feb. 5 — Miss Jessie Kortges' death occurred last Sun- 
day evening under very sad circumstances. 

Feb. 26 — Fifty new members were initiated in the Work- 
man lodge last Thursday night. 

March 5 — $2000 county bonds are paid. Rev. C. E. 
Phinney of Utica died today, aged seventy years. He was a 
pioneer preacher of that region. Last Thursday night a 
severe sleet storm occurred. 

March 12 — Simon Johnson of Milford died last Friday. 

March 19 — Otto Holstein was run over and killed by a 
B. & M. train northwest of the city yesterday morning. 

April 2 — Mrs. W. C. Hartman of Staplehurst died last 
Saturday. 

April 16 — The death of John Roberts Sr. occurred last 
Friday. He was a Seward county born boy. 

April 30 — The school board begins figuring on a new 
high school building. 

May 28 — Nineteen deaths occurred in a cyclone in Ne- 
braska last week. 

Mrs. Harriet Swan, an aged lady, died in Seward last 
Saturday. Jessie Moore was accidentally shot and killed 
near Staplehurst last Friday night. A little cyclone last 
Friday near Germantown. 

June 4th — Nine graduate at the high school last Thurs- 
day evening. Thirteen inches of water fell during May. 

June llth--$8,000 county bonds paid last Tuesday. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 329 

New strawberries received from Beaver Crossing last Sat- 
urday. 

June 18th~Wra. C. Pallet died in Seward June 12. He 
had been a resident near Beaver Crossing 33 years. 

June 25th — A heavy hail storm visited the southwest 
part of the county last Friday doing much damage to crops. 
John Englehauft of Milford died last Saturday. Had been a 
resident of Milford twenty-three years and prominent in bus- 
iness. 

July 9th — Dan Tophan fell otf his wagon and^was killed 
on his way home from Staplehurst last Thursday. Phil 
Bridenbough of "N" precinct committed suicide last Monday, 
cause dispondency. 

July 16th — The electric proposition carried by a vote of 
five to one. Dr. D. D. Potter's house was robbed of a gold 
watch. A bad hail storm passed over the west part of the 
county last Sunday and destroyed the crops in its wake. 

July 23d— The last $2,(X^0 of county bonds are paid and 
Seward county is free from debt. Mrs. Harriet I. Jones, 
widow of Claudius Jones, died last Saturday. Claudius 
Roberts, a Seward boy, was accidentally shot and killed at 
Ogden, Utah, July 20. 

July 30 — H. Webermier of "N" precinct was killed by ac- 
cident in the harvest field last Saturday. 

Aug. 20th — The old settlers enjoyed a fine picnic at 
Beaver Crossing. Seward County Telephone Co. organized 
at Beaver Crossing. Capital stock $5,000. 

Aug. 27th — The A. O. U. W. picnic at the park was a 
big affair on last Tuesday. 

Sept. 3d — County fair now in session and large attend- 
ance. W. C. Forster of Staplehurst died last Friday. 

Oct. 1st— German picnic at the park was an immense 
affair. 

Oct. 8th — Gus Babson, prominent business man of Se- 
ward died last Tuesday. Near Goehner last Saturday F. 
Shultz accidentally cut otf the feet of his little daughter with 
a mowing machine. 

Oct. 15th — A very destructive fire at Milford yesterday 
destroyed seven business houses. 

Nov 5th — The big rooster is up and crowing because 



330 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 

Baker, Calder and Bern is are elected. The rest of the ticket 
is repubhcan. 

Nov. 19th — Burglars got in their work at the North- 
western depot last Sunday night, but got no money. 

Nov. "26th- -35, 000 sheep are being fed in the county. 
Patrick Reynokls, eighty-seven years old, died in the north- 
ern part oL" the county last Tuesday. 

Dec. 3d — Mrs. M. J. Ruby, an old time citizen of Se- 
ward, died in Oklahoma last Thursday. She was nearly 
ninety-eight years old. 

Dec. 7th — It is noted that Milford is on the boom. 

Dec. 17th — Helmer Hiteman loses a hand in a corn shei- 
ler. The coldest wave of the season passed over us this 
week. 

Jan. 14th, 1904 — Gen. Victor Vifquain died last Thurs- 
day. 

Jan. 21st — Mrs. J. H. Vance, one of the pioneers of the 
south part of the county, died la»t Monday. 

Feb 4th — Mrs. Harriet Ritche died at Seward last Tues- 
day. She was an old setbler in "D" precinct. 

Feb. 11th — Mi's. E. A. Rodman, an old settler near 
Go6hner, died on the 5th inst. The Seward electric lights 
have been running a week with entire satisfaction. 

Feb. iMth — Mrs. Susan Roberts, one of our pioneer 
mothers, died last Friday. 

March 3d — S. C. Langworth, president of the First 
National Bank of Seward, died on the 2nd inst. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



TiiV)iite to Wives and Mothers — Clothing of Pioneers, Manner of Living 
— What Kind of a People are weV — Old Settlers' Reunions — Address 
at a Reunion— First District Court— First Marriages— Snow Storms 
—Well Behaved Winters— High Waters. 



TRIBUTE TO WIVES AND MOTHERS OF THE PIONEERS 

The mothers and wives of the pioneers are justly enti- 
tled to kind remembrance. They were devoted and self 
sacrilicing beyond measure. The labor they performed and 
the hardships they endured should live in the hearts of the 
people to the remotest generation. Here is a picture not 
overdrawn: A young bride of twenty has left her father's 
home of comfort and luxury in the East, and with her 
young husband has turned her face toward the setting sun, 
with the determination to assist in hewing out a new home 
in the wilderness of the West. With no capital except a 
strong resolution to win, and strong faith in the future, they 
bid adieu to friends and kindred, and with a steady eye 
tixed upon the star of empire they penetrate the wilderness. 
A little log cabin, or a sod house, or a dug-out has been has- 
tily built for shelter. A iDarlor, sitting room, kitchen and 
bed room are all combined in one. The bare walls of the 
rude home are brought in contrast in the mind of the young 
wife with the beautiful home of her childhood; but in her 
young breast, "'hope is like an anchor to the soul." When 
the first Sabbath dawns, she may listen in vain for the 
sweet chimes of the church-going bell, but looking out on 
the broad expanse of prairie, all is solitary. Sometimes 
with heaviness of heart she labors on and on, and cheers the 
faltering heart of her husband in his endeavors. The little 
means that they have brought are rapidly melting away be- 
fore any return for their labor is in sight. The beautiful 
garments of her youth are fading and becoming tattered. 
By and by she becomes a mother, and while the beautiful 



332 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

gift of heaven may bring joy and gladness, yet in the same 
train it brings anxieties and sorrows, a constant care by day 
and by night. The young father must sometimes go long 
distances from home, to be gone days at a time, to a mill fif- 
ty or a hundred miles away, or to a city far away, and the 
young mother and lier darling must stay weary days and 
long nights in the lonely home, with no protector but her 
God. And now comes a strolling band of hungry Indians 
to frighten and annoy her, and while the child is sci'eaming 
with fright, she must stand in the door and face these 
ferocious wild men. She must frequently leave her child to 
cry, while she goes long distances after the cows, or to a 
distant spring for water, or carry the baby on her arm and 
a heavy bucket of water with the other. Then again, the 
harvest time comes, or something else occurs, when several 
work hands must be provided for when with scanty means at 
command she must perhaps carry the babe on her arm and 
with the other do the work of cooking for the hands. And 
again when night comes, she must divide her bed and make 
beds upon the cabin floor for the men, and as her husband 
keeps a "free hotel" for all strangers, she must deny herself 
and little ones ease and comfort to wait upon strangers, and 
frequently make her children wait at meal time while stran- 
gers eat their bread, and the mother and children make their 
meals from the scraps. This is no fancy sketch; it has oc- 
curred ten thousand times, of which there are plenty of liv- 
ing witnesses. 

Oh ! who but a mother can tell of the weariness of a 
mother's life on the frontier; so often struggling to keep the 
wolf from the door, so often beset with dangers, so often 
overworked with slavish labor, and so often overwrought 
with anxious care. No wonder that untimely gray hairs ap- 
pear, and that her cheeks are furrowed while she should yet 
be in the prime of her womanly strength and beauty. 

Young men and maidens of Nebraska, you that have 
such pleasant homes today, will you please remembei- what 
it has cost your parents in tl\e years gone by, to prepare 
these homes for you. In your grateful hearts will you in a 
becoming manner reverence and love them? If you can fully 
re^^lize in your imagination what they have done for you, it 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 333 

will surround their gray heads with grace and beauty, inter- 
mingled with a halo of holy light. 



THE CLOTHING OF THE PIONEERS 

During the first years of the settlement, this should per- 
haps receive some notice. It must be borne in mind that 
clothing was extremely high in price from 1H63 to 1868. 
The commonest calico was worth from forty to fifty cents 
per yard. A pair of brogan shoes cost live dollars; common 
domestic was worth from seventy-five cents to one dollar per 
yard, and all articles at about the same rate. Pine cloth- 
ing was entirely out of reach of the common people, and 
was unseen in this country. The men were usually pro- 
vided with a (condemned) soldier's overcoat, which were the 
cheapest garments in the market. Condemned soldiers' 
blankets were also used to a considerable extent. We have 
seen them made into overshirts, and then used for under- 
snirts. We have also known them to be made into pants. 
Our hats and caps were just what happened to come handy 
— sometimes caps of coon or badger skins; at other times 
some old garment would be ripped up and made into a cap; 
occasionally a chip hat was seen, but usually in a weather- 
beaten condition, and frequently it was minus a large part 
of the rim. A gray horse blanket frequently served as a 
coat. Mittens were made rudely of skins of animals — elk, 
coon, or whatever came handy; sometimes they were made 
of odd bits of cloth, and faced with pieces of old meal sacks; 
and meal sacks were frequently converted ito pants. Strips 
of bed ticking furnished us with suspenders. Our feet, per- 
haps, had the hardest time of it, as they were brought more 
directly into contact with frost and snow. The man who had 
a good pair of cowhide boots was fortunate; but he was an 
exception. We improvised moccasins, which at times we 
were fortunate enough to trade for with the Indians; then 
we would make them ourselves out of elk hides, or of cloth, 
or sheepskins. Our poor feet were often in a sorry plight. 

If our wives were fortunate enough to have two calico 
dresses in one year, they were truly thankful. Sunbonnets 
of calico were commonly worn to church, as well as the 



334 HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

faded shawls of other years. Cloth slippers frequently 
served for shoes or moccasins. We have known the old 
chests to be rum aged and old bedspreads, such as the dear 
old grandmothers wove, brought out as a last resort and made 
into skirts and worn. In summer, men, women, young men, 
and maidens went barefoot to a great extent. 

Such clothing as we wore, even the best of us, would 
now be a laughing stock for you all, but then, it was no 
laughing matter; now it's no matter how much you laugh. 
Should you see one dressed in the usual garb of 1864 and 
1865. you would certainly think it to be a scarecrow, yet we 
were powerless to have it otherwise. We all felt the sting 
of the situation. We had many of us been used to better 
fare. We had just as noble aspirations as any of our pres- 
ent people. We all wanted to do better, and just as soon as 
it was possible, we did do better. 

Our food was usually ])lain and healthful. We used as 
matter oC necessity a great amount of corn bread and lye 
hominy. We generally had a good supply of wild fruits, 
such as plums, grapes, gooseberries, alderberries, and rasp- 
berries. We made sorghum molasses for sweetening. Our 
new ground produced melons in grand profusion, and when 
we were fortunate enough to kee]) the Indians from stealing 
them, we enjoyed eating melons such as a king might admire. 
Our wives were almost universally good cooks, and they 
would come neai'er getting up a good dinner out of poor ma- 
terial than most women do out of a well supplied larder. At 
times our tables were supplied with delicious meats of ante- 
lope and wild turkeys, frequently of elk, and occasionally of 
buffalo. Then again we would have to depend upon smaller 
game, such as prairie chickens, rabbits, squirrels, etc. Af- 
ter the first year, pigs began to accumulate, also domestic 
fowls, and occasionally a beef would be slaughtered, and al- 
so vegetables were produced, and the skies became brighter. 

Later comers usually brought a little money, and we 
proved a blessing to them, as we usually had something to 
sell them that they most needed, such as grain, hay, poultry, 
a pig, a cow perhaps, .some potatoes for seed, and we wel- 
comed them heartily, for they brought us some money, 
which we sorely needed, and they brought us society, which 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 335 

we had longed for so patiently. They brought us hopes of 
school and church privileges, for which we were hungry in- 
deed. We began to renew our dihipidated clothing and live 
more like folks, and our lives were brighter and more cheer- 
ful for their coming. 

Visiting on the frontier was a feature worth noticing. 
With all our poverty, we enjoyed visiting one another. We 
made no fashionable calls, just to show what fine clothes we 
could wear. We were all ragged alike. When we went, we 
aimed to put in the whole day, and took the whole family, 
and we invariably had a good time. One feature of these vis- 
its was that our good wives all knew one another's circum- 
stances. If the neighbor to be visited was out of butter or 
meat, or any other article necessary to make a square meal, 
it was never an offense to look the cupboard over and take 
such things along as would supply the deficiency. That 
would now be considered an insult. Then it was the most 
common thing to take a roll of butter, a piece of meat, 
a few eggs, or anything that parties were fortunate enough 
to have, and that was known to be lacking at the place to be 
visited. People were always welcome at their neighbor's 
hearths. We did not stop to ring the doorbells or send in 
our cards to learn if we were welcome. 



WHAT KIND OF PEOPLE ARE WE? 

Our citizenship is made up of a mixed multitude. All 
the eastern and northern states east of the Missouri are well 
repre.sented. Illinois and Iowa have furnished the largest 
quotas, but Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Wis- 
consin and Michigan are not far behind. We have quite a 
sprinkling from Missouri, Kentucky, and other .southern 
states. Of the foreigners, the Germans have the lead. They 
are here in great numbers and they came to stay. The great 
majority had been in America long before they came to Sew- 
ard county. The had halted .some years in the other states, 
and had "worn the green off;" nearly all of them had learned 
our language and had become conversant with our institu- 
tions. They have proved apt scholars in learning American 
ways. They do not forget the fatherland, but they came to 



336 HISTORY OF riEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

this country to find better homes, and they are loyal to the 
flag and institutions of their adopted home. 

We have quite a goodly number from Sweden and Den- 
mark and they are "true blue" Americans as well as the 
Irish and English, of which we have many. If you want to 
pick up a row with an Irishman, just say one word against 
our flag and you will be readily accommodated. 

These foreign born citizens, we take it, are from among 
the best their several countries afford. Many of them are 
scholars of a high order, and men of broad views. Some of 
the most thoroughly trained minds in our county and state 
are to be found among the foreign born citizens. We find 
such among every nationality except the Bohemians; of them 
we know but little as they have but lately invaded our coun- 
try. Some of the brightest scholars are Frenchmen. Un- 
fortunately, we have but few of them. It would be a great 
blessing to us if we had many more of them. 

We have a large settlement in west "O" and "N" pre- 
cincts known as Amish Menonites who migrated from the 
western borders of Russia. They are of German descent or 
origin. They are a prodigy as farmers. We must say in all 
our travels in the northern states (nearly every one of them 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific) we have never seen such a 
beautiful block of farms anywhere as may be found at the 
Amish settlements in Seward county. These well-behaved, 
energetic and thrifty people have done much to enrich and 
beautify our land. This has been largely the case with all 
our foreign born people. If they are not the best Europe 
can afford, they must have some mighty good people over 
there; but we think we got the best they had. 

We are rapidly becoming a homogeneous people. The 
children of these people are just the same as our American 
boys and girls. You could not tell the difference. 

We have but few families of colored people. The older 
ones of these were born and raised slaves. They are all in- 
dustrious and well disposed people, and it speaks well for 
them and is certainly to their credit that under such dis- 
couraging conditions they have come to such a high stand- 
ard of citizenship. 

The Americans, of course, preponderate in numbers, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 337 

and nearly all of them are progressive and intelligent, and 
generally prosperous. There are hundreds that came to the 
county with bare hands, except they generally had plenty of 
children; but now they are well to do, with pleasant homes 
and a great abundance of this world's goods. Their children 
have grown intelligently and the old folks are enjoying the 
fruits of a well-spent life. 

We have a great number of old soldiers in all parts of 
the county, and w^e take great pride in testifying that they 
are nearly all universally respected and honored for the 
part they had in saving for us a home and a country, and for 
their many sterling qualities as citizens. Long live the sol- 
dier boys. We are so glad that our Nebraska has provided 
such a beautiful home for such as are so unfortunate as not 
to have homes of their own. 



OLD SETTLERS' REUNIONS 

The first meeting of the reunion of old settlers was held 
in the public square in Seward in October 1884, with W. W. 
Cox as president. The meeting was not largely attended, 
but was of great interest. Many touching incidents of early 
times were related. In 1885 there was no meeting, but in 
October, 1886, the society was re-organized and placed on a 
more permanent basis. Officers elected were: W. W. Cox, 
president, Geo. A. Merriam, secretary, and Mrs. Thos. Gra- 
ham, treasurer. The society that year opened a registry of 
the old settlers, giving name, time of settlement, where lo- 
cated, age, etc. Great numbers availed themselves of that 
privilege. A very large and enthusiastic meeting was held 
in Roberts' grove west of the city. The officers for 1887 
were: J. H. Culver, of Milford, president; George A. Mer- 
riam, secretary; Mrs. Thos. Graham, treasurer. In October, 
1887, the annual meeting was held at Milford and was very 
largely attended, and a very enjoyable meeting was held. 
Gov. Thayer made the address of the day. Many new names 
were added to the registry. Oiffcers elected for 1888 were: 
W. R. Davis, president, and George A. Merriam and Mrs. 
Graham were again re-elected, and Seward was chosen as 
place of the meeting of 1888. These meetings bid fair to 



338 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

grow in interest from year to year, and in long years to 
come the registry will become of priceless value. 

The four counties of Butler, Polk, York, and Seward 
have held conjointly three reunions at Lord's grove, near 
the four corners, where vast numbers of people from these 
four counties have held very profitable meetings. 

At the meeting in 1886 it was estimated that over four 
thousand were present. The meeting of 1887 was postponed 
on account of a heavy rain storm, and the meeting adjourned 
with the same obstacle when it was determined to defer the 
meeting to the summer of isss. 

By some unaccountable reason these meetings were 
dropped. We very much regret to record this fact. They 
should be revived and kept up. They would be pleasant and 
profitable, helping lo keep up old friendships, and assist in 
renewing old acquaintance, and it would be a great help in 
preserving historical data. As the old people die off, many 
incidents of their lives which it would be profitable to pre- 
sei've for those who come after is buried with them and can 
never be known. 



ADDRESS AT A REUNION 

The following is an extract from an address delivered 
at the old settlers' reunion at Lord's grove, near the four 
corners of Butler, Polk, York and Seward counties in 1886: 

Young friends, children of the pioneers, we would ask 
you to bear in kind remembrance the hardships and strug- 
gles that these gray-headed fathers and mothers have en- 
dured in other years to provide homes of c;omfort and luxury 
for you. Their heads are fast becoming silvered with age. 
Their steps are not so elastic as in other years. The great 
duties with which they so manfully grappled in the prime of 
their manhood's strength must now be accepted by you. 
Will you accept them like men and women worthy of the 
honored names you bear? 

The improvements on these prairies, these houses and 
barns, these groves and orchards, these smiling fields, these 
churches and school-houses, these thrifty towns and cities, 
that, like jewels of a crown, are scattered over the plain, all 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 339 

attest that the pioneers have not hved in vain. They have 
laid well and tirmly these foundations. You must go on 
with the superstructure. 

There is yet plenty of work for you. These beneficent 
institutions are to be guarded, and great undertakings are 
yet to develop into achievements that will bless mankind. 
This vast empire must in the near future teem with its mil- 
lions of people, and it will require great wisdom to guide 
them to a proper destiny; and upon you, our sons and 
daughters, must devolve the duty of going forward wisely 
and energetically to complete the task we have so well be- 
gun. Oh, for the glory of the future of our native land! 

May you, fathers and mothers, spend your declining 
years amidst peace and plenty, surrounded by earnest, lov- 
ing, and intelligent children, carrying forward with master 
hands the enterprises that are so dear to your hearts; and 
may he who shall stand here in the far off years to come, to 
tell the stories of our first settlement, of our joys and sor- 
sows, of our labors, trials, and discouragements, and the fi- 
nal triumphs, '"be able to still look around upon a great, in- 
telligent, free, and hap])y people." May he with all the en- 
thusiasm of poetry exclaim: 

"Here is still my country, 
Zealous yet modest. 
Innocent though fi-ee, 
Patient of toil. 
Serene amidst alarms. 
Inflexible in faith. 
Invincible in arms." 



FIRST DISTRICT COURT 

The first term of the district court in Seward county, 
was held at Milford, November 15, 1869, Judge George B. 
Lake presiding. Prank M. Elsworth was appointed dis- 
trict attorney. The first case on the docket was John W. 
Shields vs. J. L. Bandy. The only state case was against 
W. H. Tuttle, for an assault on Jonathan Gordon. Mr. Tut- 
tle got clear of the charge, but the prevalent opinion was 
that he ought to be fined for not doing a more thorough job. 

J. C. Cowun, of Omaha, was the first district attorney of 



340 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the district who attended oui* court, which was held in the 
year 1H70, at Milford. 

The first term held at Seward was in the spring of 1872, 
Judge Lake on the bench. T. L. Norval was appointed dis- 
trict attorney. At that term the famous Courtwright in- 
junction case came up, in which Judge Lake made the in- 
junction against the Midland R. R. and the county commis- 
sioners perpetual. 

Judge Lake held the office of judge of this judicial dis- 
trict until the year 1876, when the districts w^ere changed 
and the sixth district was formed. Geo. W. Post was elect- 
ed and he was re-elected and served until the spring of 1883, 
when he resigned, and T, L. Norval was appointed by Gov. 
Dawes to fill the vacancy. Judge Norval was elected in the 
fall of 1888, and held the office from that date until 1H90. M. 
B. Reese was elected district attorney, and held the office 
until 1882. Thos. Darnall was elected to the place in the fall 
of 18S2, and held the place until January, 1887, when the law 
took elfect providing for county attorney, at which time R. 
P. Anderson was elected to the office of county attorney. 

Prior to 1879, the county clerk performed the duties of 
district clerk. H. P. Lewis was appointed in 1879, and 
elected in 1880 and re-elected in 1882, after which Geo. A. 
Merriam was elected, and re-elected in November, 1887. 

We glean from the probate court records that the first 
letters of guardianship were issued by Judge Henry Wor- 
tendyke, on the 29th of January, 1870, to Sarah C. Wilcox, 
in matters of guardianship of the minor heirs of Syrel Tift. 



FIRST MARRIAGES 

The first marriage in the county, as shown by the rec- 
ords, was that of John W. Pitt and Miss Eva Long, at the 
residence of Samuel Long, on the 12th of November, 1866. 
The ceremony was performed by C, J. Neihardt, J. P. 

The first marriage in "G" precinct and city of Seward 
was at the house of Lewis Moffitt, on the 20th day of March, 
1867. The contracting parties were David P. Imlay and 
Miss Mary Moffitt, W. W. Cox, justice of the peace, officiat- 
ing. On the 20th of April, 1H67, the second wedding in "G" 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 341 

precinct was that of James A. Brown and Miss Sarah A. 
Imlay, at the residence of the bride's father, one and one- 
half miles northwest of the present city. We had the honor 
of ofticiating on that occasion. 



SNOW STORMS 

Since the stormy winter of 1866 and 1867, we have had 
only occasional storms of p^reat severity. April 13, 1873, a 
rain commenced in the early morning, which turned to sleet 
during the day, and raged so fiercely that man or beast could 
hardly withstand it. As night approached it turned to snow, 
and the night and following day were appalling. The whirl- 
ing and drifting snow drove the unsheltered stock before it 
to destruction. Mr. A. D. Ritchie had a large herd of sheep 
drift with the storm until they rushed over the bank into 
Lincoln creek, where they perished. Peter Henegen, of 
Butler county, lost a herd of cattle in the same way. They 
took shelter under a high bank on the upper Blue, and the 
snow drifted entirely over them. 

The worst snow storm of this generation struck this 
county a little after 3:00 p. m. on the l"2th day of January, 
1888. A damp snow had been falling from near the previous 
midnight. The weather was quite warm and pleasant, and 
up to 3:00 o'clock the snow fell in great feathery flakes, such 
as school children rejoice to see, with no breath of wind; 
and while we were all watching the beautiful snow coming 
so gently, little thinking of the terrors of the night, when 
all at once, as if some demon had been turned loose on the 
world, there came a blast from the northv:est, such as was 
never seen before in this fair land. All hearts were terror- 
stricken at the fury of the storm. The atmosphere was so 
thick with drifting snow that nothing could be seen, and the 
mercury immediately fell near fifty degrees, and it seemed 
for a time that no mortal exposed to its terrors could survive 
its fearful ravages. This continued till near midnight. 

There was no loss of life recorded in Seward county, 
but there were numerous hair-breadth escapes. We have 
two victims in this county who suffered more than death: 
Lena Webbeke, of "I" precinct, a girl of eleven years, under- 



342 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

took to reach her home from the school-house, and became 
bewildered and remained out in an open field, partially drift- 
ed under the snow, and was rescued in the morning. This 
is one of the most remarkable incidents on record. That she 
should survive seems a miracle. One of her legs was ampu- 
tated and she bid fair to recover. Miss Etta Shattuck, who 
was away in Holt county, teaching, was caught in the storm, 
and by chance ran to a haystack and burrowed into it, re- 
maining there seventy-two hours, and was accidentally 
found. She was brought to her home in Seward, and it was 
found necessary to have both feet amputated. She seemed 
to be recovering. She remained cheerful under the terrible 
ordeal. Her case created wide-spread sympathy, and large 
amounts of money were raised at Seward, Omaha, Fremont, 
Nebraska City, among the traveling men on trains, and at 
many other places in the state. Poor Ettie died February 
6, 1888. 

The State Journal started a subscription also for the 
Webbeke girl, which was caught up at Seward and other 
places and resulted in ample funds for her care and educa- 
tion. All that willing hands and loving hearts could do was 
done for her relief arid tender care. 

The storm was of such short duration that the stock 
stood it through with scarcely no loss in this county; but in 
the great northland it swept men and beasts to destruction 
by thousands. The people of our county were very grateful 
for the generous contributions from all parts pi the state. 

Since that memorable storm to this writing, the winters 
have been pretty well behaved. We have not had a regular 
blizzard since that date. There has been but a moderate 
amount of snow at any time. In the winter of 1903-4, there 
was but little, so sleigh rides were at a premium. On the 
20th of January, 1905, we had what may be called a "beauti- 
ful snow," and a well behaved one. About ten inches fell, 
and it is yet (two weeks later) just lying perfectly quiet, and 
sleighing is good. 

In the last seventeen years, the thermometer has rarely 
gotten down to twenty below zero, and the winds since that 
horrible night of Jan. 12, 1888, have been on their good be- 
havior. Of course it blows sometimes, but to say the least, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 343 

there has in seventeen years been no destructive storm in 
winter. 

We have an occasional hail storm that phiys havoc in 
narrow belts; however they are generally in the other coun- 
ty, but sometimes we get a taste of hail. In the summer of 
1904, one swooped down near Tamora and swept a district 
from two to three miles wide running in a southeasterly di- 
rection, crossing the Blue river north of Ruby station, and 
losing its force in the Middle creek hills. It did a pretty 
good job and marketed about all the corn in its swath. 

Destructive Hoods in summer time we never have. Our 
drainage system is so perfect that it may rain all that it has 
a mind to, and the land cannot overflow to do great damage 
as it does m many less favored places. Within the forty 
years that we have been familiar with the Blue river, we 
have seen but three floods that covered any considerable 
part of the valley: one in Feb., 1865; one in April, 1867; one 
in Aug., 1881. On the subject of water courses and drainage 
the reader is kindly referred to another page. 



CHAPTER XVIll. 



Agricviltural Society — Assessments and Financial Conditions — Value of 
Property — Census Tables — Court House and Struggles to Get it — 
Eggs and Poultry — Telephone Companies — A Little Story. 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, ITS HISTORY 

Seward County Agricultural Society was org-anized 
August 7, 1871, by the adoption of a constitution and set of 
by-laws, and the election of the following officers: Milton 
Langdon, president; F. M. Ellsworth, vice-president; T. P. 
Hardenburg, secretary; Geo. W. Standard, treasurer. The 
tirst fair was held from the 21st to 23d of September, in the 
grove southwest of Seward. By referring to the Nebraska 
Atlas of Sept. 29, 1871, w^e tind that the fair was a success, 
and that there were over a thousand people in attendance. 
We have our memory refreshed also by finding in another 
issue of the same sheet that our secretary got away with 
some of our funds. yVe have no means of learning just how 
much. 

At the regular annual meeting in October, 1871, we find 
that W. W. Cox was elected president. There is no record 
of who were the other officers, but we remember that James 
A. Brown was chosen secretary, and Hon.T. L. Norval, clerk; 
that w^e held the second annual fair at the same place as the 
first, and that it was quite successful. We arranged a very 
creditable premium list, and were able to pay all the in- 
debtedness caused by the default of the former secretary, 
and every expense of the fair, including the premiums, and 
turned over sixty dollars to our successors in office. The 
exhibits were good, especially in farm products and in the 
fine arts. The trees of the beautiful grove fairly blossom 3d 
with the handiwork of our women. The editor of the Ne- 
braska Parmer delivered the annual address. 

It is most unfortunate that the records of the society 
from the date of its formation until 1881 have been lost or 



346 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

destroyed; and what is more surprising, the most diligent 
search through the files of the newspapers of those years 
discloses nothing from which we can learn anything of im- 
portance, except the first organization in the summer of 1871, 
in the Nebraska Atlas. We remember, however, that- Mr. 
Campbell was elected president in the fall of 1872, and 
Joseph Lossee was secretary, and that they held a fair in 
the fall of 1873. 

J. A. Brown was elected in the year of 1873, and a fair 
was held in the year of 1874. If we remember correctly, 
Mr. Brown was re-elected, but of this we have no means of 
being certain. They held a fair in the year of 1875 and Mr. 
Brown delivered an address, which we find in the Nebraska 
Reporter in full, but not another word about the fair. The 
speech was a good one, and full of good hints and sugges- 
tions. 

If memory serves us correctly, (and we have searched 
diligently and taxed the memory of all who would be most 
likely to remember,) Ed. Mclntyre was elected president, 
and re-elected in the fall of 1876, or held over on account of 
there being no election in 1876. There was no fair held 
that year. In the fall of 1877 a fair was held, and was quite 
a success. 

During the summer of 1^77 an association was formed, 
known as the Seward Trotting Park Association. This as- 
sociation bought forty acres of land of the B. & M. R. R. 
Co. at ten dollars an acre, and raised the money by selling 
stock in five-dollar shares. Arrangements were made with 
the Agricultural Society to hold the fairs on these grounds 
for a certain consideration, and our fairs were held there for 
a time. 

There is much unwritten history connected with this 
Trotting Park Association. In the first place the rail road 
folks were induced to part with the land at half price, be- 
cause it was apparently for a public benefit. Men sub- 
scribed for stock in small quantities, just to help the enter- 
prise, and had no thought of realizing any income from the 
investment. The stock was transferable, and it was but a 
short time until it was discovered that one man had a majority 
of the stock, and enjoyed complete control of the whole con^ 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 347 

cern; so the association larg:el.y consisted of one man. The com- 
munity did not take kindly to the matter in that shape, and 
it was a source of continual trouble and annoyance until the 
citizens made up funds the second time and purchased the 
property outright for the Agricultural Society, in 18Hfj, 
when the county commissioners made a liberal appropria- 
tion for improvements. 

Claudius Jones was president in the fall of 1877, and 
a fair was held in the fall of 1878, when William Gill was 
elected, and held the fair in the fall of 1879. In that year 
John Henderson was elected, and held the fair of 1880, when 
Wm. Redford was elected president. In that year we lind a 
record (the tirst) of their proceedings. 

The fairs were measurably successful as exhibitions, 
but the society was generally hard pressed for means, and 
frequently the more enterprising members were taxed be- 
yond endurance to keep life in the society. Among the 
more notable persons who always had a shoulder to the 
wheel were James A. Brown, Ed. Mclntyre, Wm. E. Gill, E. 
M. Hickman and Claudius Jones. These men, and i:)erhaps 
a few others, are entitled to much credit for untiring energy 
and a free use of their money in keeping the society alive 
through many years of adversity. 

We see by a record of a meeting held August 6, 1881, 
that Ed. Mclntyre was elected secretary pro tem. We 
notice that J. A. Brown offered a resolution that the offices 
of secretary, treasurer, vice president and three of the 
directors be declared vacant, on account of the negligence of 
these officers in performing their duties. Resolution 
adopted. Whereupon Geo.C. McKay was elected vice pres- 
ident, Ed. Mclntyre, secretary, J. A. Brown, treasurer, and 
Wm. Gill, J. B. Courtwright and Allen Price, directors, to 
fill vacancies. The fair was held Sept. 29th, 30th and Oct. 
1st of that year. 

We notice in the report of their October meeting that 
the receipts were as follows: Total receipts, including $300 
from county, were $1,135.10; total expenditures, $1,016.36; 
leaving a balance of $118.74. 

At their December meeting Wm. Redford was re elected 
president, and Ed. Mclntyre was re-elected secretary, and 



348 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

R. S. Nerval was elected treasurer. The time fixed for the 
fair of 1H82 was Sept. 27th to 30th. J. S. Henderson was 
chosen superintendent. Wm. Gill was elected delegate to 
State Board of Agriculture It was resolved at this meeting 
to hold a farmers' institute in February, and the secretary 
was instructed to correspond with Gov. Furnas and Prof. 
Thompson, and they voted to tax themselves fifty cents each 
to defray the expenses. 

At a meeting of the board in August, 1882, $40 was ap- 
propriated to pay expenses of a county exhibit at state fair. 

Records of tlie meeting in July, 1883, show that there 
was received at last fair $1,407.50, and expended $1,374.10, 
leaving a balance of $32.67. Wm. Redford was re-elected 
president; also, Mr. Mclntyre was re-elected secretary by 
acclamation, and Wm. Gill was re-elected delegate to state 
board. 

At the August meeting, 18M3, Wm. Gill was employed to 
take charge of exhibit at state fair. 

At the annual meeting of January 5, 1884, the report 
showed $1,849.45 received from all -sources, and $1,744.20 
paid out. E. M. Hickman was elected president, and C. S. 
Ailing was elected secretary and treasurer. Wm. Gill was 
again elected delegate to state board. 

At a called meeting in April the time for holding the an- 
nual fair was fixed at Oct. 1st, 2d, 3d and 4th. 

At a meeting in August the president was instructed to 
conclude a contract with C. Jones for sixty shares of the 
Driving Park Association stock at $1,000, and authorized to 
draw on the treasurer for $50 to bind the bargain. 

At a meeting in October an order was voted to Ed. 
Mclntyre of $50, to help pay expenses of exhibit at World's 
Fair at New Orleans. 

At the annual meeting in January, 1885, Geo. Pickerel 
was elected president, and C. S. Ailing was re-elected secre- 
tary and treasurer; Ed. Mclntyre was elected superinten- 
dent, and J. H. Culver was elected delegate to state board 
and instructed to cast his vote to re-elect Gov. Furnas as 
secretary of said board. Dates fixed for the fair of 1885 
were Sept. 2d, 3d, 4th and 5th. We find no report of treas- 
urer, although it is recorded that report was approved. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 349 

At a special meeting, February 6, 1886, Claudius Jones 
was elected president, C. S. Ailing, secretary, and H. T. 
Jones, treasurer. Here again we tind no report of treasurer, 
but a record that his report was approved. 

At a special meeting held in July, a resolution is passed 
accepting a donation of $2,000, secured by the Board of 
Trade of Seward, by its president, G. Babson, for the pur- 
chase of the Driving Park Association's grounds. 

A general meeting of the society was authorized to be 
called by the secretary for July 23d, we suppose to finish 
the purchase of the grounds, but the secretary is silent about 
that, and we tind no record of said meeting. 

At the annual meeting in January, Mr. Wm. Redford was 
elected president, and the secretary's office was left vacant, 
which was filled by the Board -H. T. Jones. J. N. Edwards 
was elected treasurer. Again we have no record of treasur- 
er's report. An invitation was voted to the citizens to plant 
trees on the fair grounds on Arbor Day. The fair was held 
in October, 1887, and was a very successful show. It was 
without doubt one of the best stock exhibits at any county 
fair in the West. 

The society met and overcame grave obstacles within 
the two previous years. First, a vast amount of money 
was raised to pay for the grounds and improve them, and 
during the last summer a heavy wind wrecked all the build- 
ings, which were rebuilt at great expense, but now the so- 
ciety has the grounds and they are fairly improved and meas- 
urably free from debt, and with bright prospects for the 
future. 

At the annual meeting in 1887, J. B. Courtwright was 
elected president, H. T. Jones was elected secretary, and 
George Dickman was elected treasurer. Treasurer's report 
showed: Total receipts of $3,200; toial expenditures, $3,400. 

Considering the valuable property and improvements, it 
is fair to say that the society is in a very prosperous condition. 

At the annual meeting Oct. 31. 1897, the following 
named persons were elected to fill the various offices: Pres- 
ident, H. F. Slonecker; vice-president, J. N. Anstine; 
treasurer, L. F. Shultz; secretary. Thos. H. Wake. Di- 
rectors appointed: John Zimmerer, John Dalton, E. C. 



350 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Gerkee, Wm. Hartman and Wm. E. Ritchie. Treasurer's 
report for 1895 and 1806 shows total receipts of $2,334.66, 
total expenditures, 2.370.27; deficit, $35.61. 

At the annual meeting held Oct. 29, 1898, the following 
persons were elected to fill the offices:- President, D. Zim- 
merman; vice-president, W. C. Hartman; treasurer, L. P. 
Shultz; secretary, A. E Baker. The president appoint- 
ed as directors for the coming year; W. S. Williams, 
chairman; H. F. Slonecker, W. E: Ritchie, August Meyers 
and John Cowperwaite. The secretary's books show re- 
ceipts of $1509.82. There does not appear on the minutes 
the amounts of expenditures, but the auditing committee 
finds a balance in the treasury of $117.33. There was -no 
fair that year. The records do not show what the expendi- 
tures were for. 

At the annual meeting held Oct. 23, 1899, Philip Unitt 
was elected president; Wm. Smiley, vice-president; W. E. 
Langworthy, treasurer; and E. C. Holland, secretary. The 
president appomted W. C. Hartman, E. A. Lamdin, D. Zim- 
merman, Geo. Poster and Wm. Smiley as board of directors. 
At this meeting a most important move was made that re- 
sulted in selling the old fair grounds and purchasing the new 
location. It was moved by G. Babson and C. E. Holland 
that the officers of the association sell the old fair grounds 
and buy a new one. Amended to read thus, "That the 
officers are instructed to see what a new location would cost 
and also to learn what the old one could be sold for, and 
that the meeting adjourn to the third Saturday in January, 
1900 for a report." This motion carried. 

At the appointed time January 20, 1900, there being no 
quorum, the meeting adjourned to January 29. At this meet- 
ing a new committee of three, viz: John Zimmerer, W. O. 
Dickenson and E. Mclntyre were appointed to assist the of- 
ficers in learning what the old grounds could be sold for and 
what the new one could be bought for. The committee was 
instructed to make a report to an adjourned meeting to be 
held March 17, 1900. In due time the committee reported 
that the old grounds could be sold for $2500, and that the 
new grounds in the vicinity, including the Roberts grove, 
would cost $3500. This meeting appointed a committee 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 351 

to secure subscriptions and were required to report at the 
meeting to be held March 24, 1900. 

At said meeting report was favorably received and the 
president and secretary were instructed to sell the old ground, 
viz: nei of sei of section 29, town 11, range 3 east, and 
purchase the new, consisting of the Roberts Grove and 
grounds adjacent in section 20, town 11. range 3 east. 
Amount of ground not stated. At the annual meeting held 
October 27, 1900, Phil Unitt was re-elected president; E. 
C. Hollond was elected secretary, and W. E. Langworthy, 
treasurer. The old board of Directors held over. Decem- 
ber 1, 1900, the society authorized the officers to borrow 
money to pay balance on the grounds. 

We note amount cash on hand October 27, 1900, was 
$183.85 and October 26, 1901, there had been received from 
all sources $3,594.60 and paid out all but $88.01. 

In 1901 the following officers were elected, viz: J. F. 
-Goehner, president; Geo. Dickman, secretary; Dr. Diers, 
treasurer. February 10, 1902, we find the finances of the 
society in bad shape with many judgments hanging over it 
and a foreclosure threatened. However, there was a stipu- 
lation between all judgment creditors that all proceedings 
should be stayed until October 3, 1903. There was no fair 
in 1902. At an adjournment meeting held, January 13th, 
1903, W. E. Ritchie, was elected president; H. Wolvin, vice 
president; Ed Mclntyre, secretary and J. L. Jergensen, 
treasurer 

We note that secretary's report. May 27, 1903, shows 
total i^eceipts of $5452.29 and expenditures of $5439. H6. A 
successful fair was held in September, 1903. Report of re- 
ceipts for the year 1903, ending December 4th, was $13243.38 
and expenditures $12760.08 leaving a balance of $1483.90 but 
somehow the treasurer's report shows on hand a balance of 
$1568.44. October 31st, 1903, W. E. Ritchie was made presi- 
dent; E. Mclntyre, vice president and Thos. Wake, treasurer. 
Report of July 4th, 1904, B. & M. picnic, showed receipts of 
$1438.45. A successful fair was held in the autumn of 1904. 
Reports of receipts, for the year is $16020.04, expenditures, 
$15737.82, balance on hand December 19th, 1904, is $12S2.20. 

The society at this writing is in a flourishing condition, 



352 HISTORY OF 8EWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

being entirely free from debt, and is the owner of the best, 
most beautiful and best equipped county fair grounds in the 
state. Tlie grounds are surrounded by a high substantial 
woven wire fence with a splendid race track. The grounds 
are beautifully shaded with native ash, walnut, elm and oak 
trees and the ground is carpeted with a fine blue grass sward. 
There are over a dozen finely arranged buildings for exhibits, 
etc. The grounds are in close proximity to the city and 
handy to the tracks where excursionists can reach the gates 
within a few steps. The beautiful river skirting the western 
and southern border of the grounds forms an attractive 
feature, whore the pleasures of boating are at command on 
gasoline launches. The grounds are picturesque and attrac- 
tive. 

Officers for 1905 are John Zimmerer, president; Phil 
Unitt, vice peesident; H. A. Graff, treasurer and H. S. 
Landis, secretary. Board of directors are F. Poore, J. S. 
Dillenbeck, E. Mclntyre, Geo. Davis and L. A. Rutan. Pres- 
ident of board, John Zimmerer and secretary, H. D. Landis. 



COURT HOUSE 

The struggle over proposition to vote county bonds to 
build a court house. The court house problem has been a 
most difficult one to solve. When the county seat was finally 
located at Seward in 1871, the citizens of the town and im- 
mediate vicinity chipped in and donated twelve hundred 
dollars to help build a court house commensurate with the 
needs of the young county. The building was built on a 
block in Harris Mottitt and Roberts' addition now occupied 
by the jail. The building was occupied some years until the 
business of the county out grew the quarters when appart- 
menls were rented in the Hedden block and other buildings, 
for the various offices. The need of a proper building has 
been felt for many years and propositions have been submitted 
at different times which were not favorably received by the 
peo])le and they were snowed undoi-. We give returns of an 
election held in 1898, when a bond proposition was unmerci- 
fully handled. 2198 votes were cast on the proposition and 
only 700 were for the proposition. Again in 1901 a special 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 353 

election was held to vote on a proposition for court house 
and jail to cost $80,000. Only 1744 votes were cast resulting 
in a defeat. 704 votes for and 1040 against. 

A new proposition for court house and jail to cost $100,- 
000, $88,000 court house and $12,000 jail, was submitted in 
the fall of 1904. This time the tide turned and the bond 
proposition, (ten year optional bonds), were voted as follows: 
2406 for and 1228 against, giving a majority for of 1178. 

The vote by precincts was as follows: 



Precinct 


For 


Against 


A 




(0 


24 


B 




127 


45 


C 




109 


120 


D 




69 


67 


E 




199 


66 


P 




122 


82 


G 




148 


24 


H 




186 


29 


I 




100 


76 


J 




137 


32 


K 




113 


42 


L 




85 


59 


M, 


Beaver Crossing 


121 


108 


M, 


Cordova 


62 


58 


N 




55 


93 







138 


152 


0, 


east 


11 


42 


p 




42 


87 


Seward 


507 


22 



Totals 2406 1228 

This proposition was so very popular that even the 
south half of the county gave a majority for it of 96 votes. 
The new court house will now soon be built and will adorn 
the public square. The structure will be of stone and fire 
proof. The building will be 80x100 feet. It is expected 
that before many years the county will come into possession 
of the estate of the late Lewis Moffitt, consisting of lands 
supposed to be worth about $30,000, which will be applied in 



354 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

liquidating the bonds. Before the corner stone of the struc- 
ture is laid, we hope to have this book complete and that a 
copy of it will have a place there, to be found and read in 
the far off ages to come, when the beautiful temple of justice 
may give way for another and grander one. 



ASSESSMENTS AND FINANCIAL CONDITION 

We append the following table showing the growth from 
year to year for many of the first years of the occupation. 
We trust the reader will appreciate these old tables and com- 
pare them with the new and thus be able to form a correct 
idea of the phenomenal advancements. 

ASSESSMENTS 

1866 — Total number of acres of deeded land, 4,728. This 
was all or about all speculator's land. The assessment on 
land that year w^as $18,667, or nearly $4 per acre; personal 
assessment, $10,880; total assessment, $29,747; total tax levy 
for the year, $423, or nearly thirteen mills on the dollar for 
all purposes. We have no means of ascertaining just how 
much of the tax that year was collected. 

We now skip over to the year 1870, and find 33, 670 acres 
on the list, and together with the personal property (they 
were not divided) amounts to $120,160, or an increase of 
28,942 acres of land, and a total increase of assessed value of 
$90,413 in five years, or an average increase of more than 
$18,000 per year. 

In 1875, we have assessed 275,204 acres of land, at 
$1,025,439, or about $3.72 per acre. This year town proper- 
ty begins to cut some figure, and we find it assessed at 
$92,091; eleven miles of railroad, $67,480; personal, $412,234, 
making a total of $1,597,244. 

In 1880, we find upon the assessment rolls 338,799 acres 
of land valued at $3.56 per acre, or $1,216,669; town proper- 
ty, $130,906; personal, $506,316; railroad (fifty-four miles), 
$183,447; grand total, $2,037,337. In this year we find that 
155,193 aeres were improved, and the following acreage of 
crops reported: wheat, 53,877; corn, 67,294; oats, 7,824; 
meadow, we suppose it to be tame, but it is not so stated, 
1,614; number of fruit trees, 53,176; forest trees, 1,053,853. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 355 

1885- -We find the lands assessed at $4.01 per acre, and 
total land assessment. $1,391,385; town property, $197,175; 
personal, $805,610; railroad, $270,437; total, $2,664,607. 

1887 — Lands were assessed, $1,489,287; town property, 
$234,651; personal, $805,311; railroads, $271,965; total, 
$2,801,214. 

These figures are sufficient to show something of the 
growth of property for the twenty-two years from 1865 to 
1887, and that will answer our purpose without an ovesdose 
of tables, which are usually rather dry reading. 

We find that there was paid to the state treasurer dur- 
ing the year 1887, as our share of state tax, the snug sum of 
$21, 821. 74, and that there was paid in collecting our principal 
and interest on school and other state lands the additional 
sum of $11,380. 90. We are quite well satisfied with the 
showing. 

CENlLlLS RETURNS. 

YEAR. POP, 

1st returns for the county . . 1870 2,953 

2nd returns for the county 1874 7,429 

3rd returns from co. , after grasshoppers, 1875 6,601 

4th returns for the county 1876 6,875 

5th returns for the county 1878 7,991 

6th returns for the county 1880 11,095 

7th returns for the county 1885 15,225 

PRECINCTS BY CENSUS OF 1885 

POPULATION NO, FAKMS FACTORIES 

A 394 76 

B 571 112 

C (induing Staplehurst) 1,076 139 11 

D 777 140 

E (including Utica) 1,335 160 10 

P (including Tamora) 883 190 

G (including Seward) 2,728 169 61 

H 1,095 155 

1 690 .131 

J 776 149 

K 672 130 

L.. ..". 833 139 

M 750 91 

N 748 134 

O (including Milford) 1,462 146 15 

P 536 93 



Totals 45,225.... 2,554 97 



356 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

The reader will readily understand that our whole state 
suffered a series of backsets during the panicky years and 
the later census reports do not show very satisfactorily . We 
all understand full well that the bottom came well nigh fall- 
ing out and we really do not appreciate giving the tables of 
late date, but if it were possible to get the figures for 1905, 
we would have figures to be proud of. In 1890 the U. S. 
census showed a total population of 16,140, and somehow in 
1900 these figures were cut downi to 15,690, but since that 
date the growth has been very satisfactory. We have never 
yet believed that we have lost in numbers, but we do believe 
that the habit of stuffing the census in 1890, that was uni- 
versal in the west had much to do with the comparative bad 
showing of 1900. Prom the present conditions throughout 
the county, in country villages and city, we feel safe in es- 
timating the present population at from eighteen to nineteen 
thousand. 

The manufacturing industries, as given in the census ta- 
bles, include every class of manufacturing, such as mills, 
creameries, wagon shops, blacksmith shops, shoe shops, tin- 
ners' shops, etc. We are sorry that it seems impossible to 
obtain the amount of capital invested in manufacturing in- 
dustries. The growth of such industries within the last 
year has been most remarkable. Of these we will treat ful- 
ly in another place. 

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF WEALTH AND POPULATION. 

In 1883, Seward had $1,346,480, and was No. 13 in the 
list of counties of our state. 

1884, $2,513,184 and 12th. 

1885, 2,664,607 " 9th. 
1896, 2,722,020 " 8th. 

POPULATION 

1870 Seward 2,953 and was 15th. 



1874 




7,429 




8th. 


1875 




6,601 




10th. 


1876 




6,875 




9th. 


1878 




7,991 




nth. 


1880 




11,095 




nth. 


1885 




15,225 




12th. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 357 

PROPERTY LISTED IN 1904 A^D VALUE 

We find the following items of interest: 

Cattle, 29,942 valued at $20 per head. 

Horses, 12,106, valued at $70 per head. 

Mules and Jacks, 829, valued at $91 per head. 

Sheep, 5,800, valued at $2.26 per head. 

Hogs, 37,225 valued at $6 per head. 

Hives bees, 1,665 valued at $2.40 per stand. 

Corn, 1,177,257 bu. valued at 35c per bu. 

Poultry, 110,197 valued at 28c each. 

Railroads, valued at $599,167.19. 

Diamonds and silverware, $1231. (Shame.) 

Threshers, 61 

Corn shellers, 143. 

Dogs, 2,449. 

Wagons, carriages, etc., 5,548. 

Bicycles and automobiles, 336. 

Personal property, $H, 729, 395. 95. 

Land value, $17,801,780, an average of $45 per 
acre for farm lands. 

Total of tax collected in 1904 was $149,093.53. Paid to 
to state treasurer, $27,129.28. Total value of real and per- 
sonal property, $26,531,175, besides the railroad property. 



EGGS AND POULTRY 

Eggs and poultry have become a very important factor 
among the varied productions of Seward county. We very 
much regret that it is impossible to obtain anything like a 
complete count of either the eggs or the poultry produced. 
The manner in which they are handled precludes the idea of 
correct statistics. The amount consumed on the farm can 
never be known, and as the eggs are handled by the mer- 
chants and sold at retail to customers in the city and vil- 
lages, the amount of these sales can never be known, but 
we will do some guessing, and the reader can guess for him- 
self if not pleased with our guess. What we know is that 
one firm, John Fleener, paid out in checks for eggs and 
poultry (not divided) $87,916 during 1904. The average paid 
for eggs was 14i cents per dp^efi. Herewith we 3.ppend a 



358 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

to 



table of amounts 


paid during each month from Jan. 1st 


Dec, 31st, 1904: 








January, 


$4,813 




February, 


3,879 




March, 


10,585 




April, 


14,164 




May, 


12,719 




June, 


9,986 




July, 


10,718 




August, 


6,196 




^September 


, 8,058 




October, 


5.822 




November, 


2,306 




December, 
Total, 


2,772 




!11587,916 



Eggs average 14i cents per dozen. Eggs shipped from 
B. & M. station at Seward, sixty car loads, or twenty-four 
tnousand cases; average value per case, $4.27, or a total of 
$102,480. We estimate that the total home consumption at 
one hundred dozen per family in city and country, or of four 
hundred thousand dozen at price named amounts to $57,000. 



TELEPHONE COMPANIES 

The Nebraska Telephone Co. has four thousand and 
thirty-four poles in the county and eight hundred ninety-five 
and a half miles of wire and twenty-three hundred feet of 
cable. They have four hundred forty-seven long distance 
phones in use. They have toll stations at Bee, Goehner, 
Beaver Crossing, Utica, Tamora, Germantown, Staplehurst, 
Ruby, Milford and Pleasant Dale besides the central ex- 
change at Seward, where they have in the city two hundred 
and sixty-seven phones in use. There are one hundred and 
forty-two farms connected with this system, and thirty-eight 
in the villages. Number of 'miles of poles about two hun- 
dred. Total valuation $56,091.25, Assessed value $11,218.25. 
The use of the wires to all parts of the county are free to all 
subscribers. Tolls to Lincoln and York 25c, to Omaha 50c. 
To towns in the county, to other than subscribers, 15c. 
Phones are charged from $4.50 per annum to farmers who 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA • 359 

connect with their wires. Rates in town range from fifty 
cents to $3 per montli. 

The Seward County Telephone Co. was organized at 
Beaver Crossing in Marcli, li)08, with a capital stock of $50,- 
000, and is chartered under the laws of Nebraska. It has at 
this writing, (May, 1905), one hundred and fifty-five miles of 
pole line in the county, outside of Seward. They have five 
hundred instruments, now in use, and the number is rapidly 
increasing. They have exchanges at Beaver Crossing, Utica, 
Tamora, Milfoid and Seward, where they connect with the 
Automatic from Lincoln. They have connections with all 
metalic lines in the state. The county is fast becoming a net 
work of wires. In the Central office at Seward, they have 
machinery of the latest and most improved pattern. The 
company have put up works in Seward that show that they 
have come to stay and do good work. The present officers 
are Jacob Gies, president; J. P. May hew, vice president; J. 
H. Ritchie, secretary and W. J. Orgon, treasurer. Directors 
are Chris Klemm, J. R. Lawyer, E. H. Strayer, Henry Gake 
and C. L. Swartz. The company is progressive and aggres- 
sive, using the best of material in every department. All 
that brains and money will do. is brought into requisition. 
It is quite an object lesson to step into the Central office and 
look over the plant. 



A LITTLE STORY 

John had his gun and he knew how to use it. The peo- 
ple that have known John D. Olney for so many years in 
Seward county, and then so many years at University Place, 
would hardly take him to be a fighter. John came to Neb- 
raska in 1865, just after serving Uncle Sam in the army, and 
like most old soldiers, he was ready for business. One day 
John was on his way from the Oak Groves to Nebraska City, ' 
and at eventide concluded to camp at the bridge on the t^team 
wagon road where it crosses Salt creek near the oldCadman 
ranch. John found the camp ground (now Epworth Park) 
occupied by three stalwart Missourians, father and two great 
strong burly sons. The old man was one of the most vicious 
old "rebs" that ever struck Nebraska, and the two young 



360 • HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

men were not far behind him. For reasons known to our- 
self we refrain from giving their names, although we were 
personally acquainted with them. By some cut of his jib, 
the old fellow discovered that John was a union soldier, and 
met him in this cordial manner, "Sir, no d Lincoln hire- 
ling can camp on this ground and stay above ground," and 
made a grab for his rifle, John was "up to snuff," and in- 
stantly he drew a bead on the old fellow, and cried, "Hands 
up!" His hands went up. At that moment the young men 
approached, and John cried, "Hands up, or you will go to 
kingdom come in an instant." They obeyed, and John had 
three prisoners, with their arms stacked. About this time, 
two other travelers came along, and they proved to be union 
soldiers. The "rebs" begged like whipped puppies. John 
said to them, "If you can learn to behave, all right." 

They were fully ready. The old fellow became quite 
well acquainted with John after that and was always ready 
to take off his hat to him. Ever after that experience the 
old fellow and his boys were careful about insulting union 
men. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



SEWARD COUNTY BANKS 

STATE BANK OF NEBRASKA 

The state Bank of Nebraska was founded in the spring 
of 1H73 by Claudius Jones, with a supposed capital of fifty 
thousand dollars. It was run under his management very 
successfully until 1879, when he sold out to A. W. Ocabock 
and associates who sold it to John Cuttle Sr. in 1H81, 
Feb. 11, some time afterwards, his son John became a part- 
ner, and later his younger son Walter also joined the partner- 
ship. The bank was incorporated in 1889, June 29th, with 
John Cattle Sr. as tirst president; John Cattle, Jr., as first 
vice-president, and Walter second vice president; and C. W. 
Barkley, cashier. The bank now has a paid up capital of 
$H0,000 and surplus and undivided profits of $10,000. The 
present officers are John Cattle, Sr., president; Walter Cat- 
tle, first vice-president; B. E. Cattle, second vice president ; 
and C. W. Barkley, cashier. The bank has enjoyed the full 
confidence of the public since its first opening day in 1873. 
The venerable president is now past eighty-six years of age 
and is yet hale and hearty. Death removed the first vice- 
president in 1902. Mr. Barkley has been cashier of the in- 
stitution since 1879 except once (1892) when he was otf on a 
tangent in Oklahoma. John Cattle, Sr. , died in England 
last spring. At this date, Aug. 1, 1905, the deposits are 
$222,500. 

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF SEWARD 

The First National Bank was an outgrowth of the Sew- 
ard County Bank w^hich was organized in the spring of 1876, 
with S. C. Lang worthy as president, and Miss Ida M. 
Langworthy. cashier; capital stock, $10,000; chartered as a 
national bank in 1882 with capital stock of $50,000: bills is- 
sued $11,250, and by a change in the law, the bills in circula- 
tion is $12,500. The first stockholders were S. C. Langwor- 
thy, Herman Diers, W. E. Chapin, Isaac Holt, John Zimmer- 
er, T. E. Sanders and E. Mclntyre. First officers were S. 
C, Langworthy, president: H, Diers, vice-president; T. E, 



362 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Sanders, cashier. Present stockholders are Joel Tishire, 
Herman Diers, John Zimmerer, E. Mclntyre, S. R. and 
Jane E. Douglass, W. E. and Jessie T. Langworthy. The 
present officers are Joel Tishue, president; Herman Diers, 
vice-president; W. E. Langworthy, cashier; W. C. Tishue 
and J. F. Zimmerer, assistant cashiers. Deposits at end of 
1904 were $280,000. Individual responsibility is over one- 
half million. The bank has been in good financial condition 
since the doors were first opened in the spring of 1876. Is 
one among the strong financial institutions of the state. 

JONES NATIONAL BANK 

The Jones National Bank is our strongest financial in- 
stitution, and we may well say it is one of the very strong 
banks of our state. It was organized in 1884 with a capital 
stock of $50,000. Claudius Jones was its first president and 
H. T. Jones its first cashier. Its present officers are, H. T. 
Jones, president; J. J. Thomas, vice-president; T. H. Wake, 
cashier; and A. D. Lewis, assistant cashier. The board of 
directors are H. T. Jones, J. J. Thomas, T. H. Wake, E. J. 
Wake and W. B. Thorpe. The bank has lately moved into 
their elegant new quarters north of the square where they 
have a building fitted up in the most modern style, with ev- 
ery convenience, with a safe that would try the mettle of the 
most expert burglar. They have put in fifty-six safety de- 
posit boxes for their customers. The last statement made 
in May, 1905 shows deposits of $425,000 and loans of $320,000. 

NEBRASKA STATE BANK OF MILFORD 

The Nebraska State Bank of Milford was organized in 
1888 with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, with six- 
teen thousand dollars paid in, and with five thousand five 
hundred dollars surplus and profits. F. S. Johnson, presi- 
dent and Geo. E. Salladin, cashier. Last statement issued, 
the bank has eighty-five thousand dollars deposits. The 
bank is just now completing a new brick block to be occu- 
pied as a banking house and post office at a cost of six thous- 
and dollars. The bank has from the first enjoyed first class 
credit. On the night of Aug. 19, 1904, the bank had some 
visitors who desired money without proper checks. With a 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 363 

charj2:e of dynamite, they blew the outer door off the safe, 
but failed to get into the cash box. 

THE FARMERS AND MERCHANTS BANK OF MILFORD 

This bank was organized in April, 1903 with a capital 
stock of forty thousand dollars; deposits at last statement 
were eighty thousand dollars. John Englehaupt was presi- 
dent, Floyd Seybolt, cashier. The bank occupies a splendid 
new brick building erected in 1904. The present president 
is Mr. E. H. Strayer. 

MERCHANTS BANK OF UTICA 

This bank was founded in July, 1883 with G. F. Hurl- 
burt, president; C. S. Hurlburt, cashier; Thos. Standard, 
Geo. Ligget and John Wilkings, were stockholders. Capital 
stock was $10,000 and was increased later to $20,000. Mr. 
G. F. Hurlburt remains president, C. G. Hurlburt is vice- 
president, and Miss Mamie Thygenson, cashier. The con- 
cern now belongs to G. F. and C. G. Hurlburt. Deposits, 
$75,000. 

UTICA BANK 

This is one of the strong financial institutions of the 
county and the leading banking house of Utica. It was 
founded in 1883 by John Davies and Thos. Brant, with Mr. 
Davies as president and Mr. Brant as cashier. Jan. 1, 1887, 
it was reorganized with a capital stock of $20,000 with Fritz 
Beckard as president; J. E. Hibard, vice president; Joseph 
Jones, director and T. J. Brant, cashier. Mr. Beckard re- 
mains president to this date; G. G. Jones, cashier; andT. H. 
Beckard, assistant cashier. In later years the capital stock 
was cut down to $14,000. Deposits at this date, $95,841.29. 
The bank seems to be as firm as Gibralter and as strong as 
Togo's fieet. 

STATE BANK OF BEAVER CROSSING 

Was organized in March, 1887 with a capital stock of 
$25,000. F. M. Dimey, Isaac Holt, A, D. Ritchie, R. S. 
Norval and T. E. Sanders were stockholders. The first 
officers were R. S. Norval, president; F. M. Dimey, vice- 
president; and T. E. Sanders, cashier. Mr. Sanders resign- 
ed in 1889 and M, W. Warner was elected and has held the 



364 HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

position since that date. Mr. Norval sold bis interest in 
1890 to L. E. Soutliwick of Friend, Nebr., wlio succeeded to 
tbe presidency and bas beld tbat position to the present 
time. In 1890 A. D. Ritchie was elected vice-president and 
beld tbe position until death removed him, and bis successor 
is W. O. Soutliwick. Tbe bank bas enjoyed a tirst class 
credit all these years. They are at this writing building a 
very substantial and beautiful brick building at an estimated 
cost of three thousand dollars. Tbe last statement shows 
$82,241.49 in deposits. 

TAMORA FARMERS EXCHANGE BANK 

The Tamora Farmers Exchange Bank was organized in 

1903 with an authorized capital of $50,000 and a paid up cap- 
ital of five thousand dollars. Tbe stockholders are E. R. 
Gurney, Frank Anstine, Dr. B. F. Williams, J. W. Daily, 
F. W. Ruzicka. These gentlemen are also directors. Frank 
Anstine is president; E. R. Gurney, vice-president; F. W. 
Ruzicka, cashier. Deposits, seventeen thousand dollars and 
they are growing rapidly. Tbe bank seems to have plenty 
of money to accomodate all its customers, and is of great 
value to the village and farming community. 

GERMANTOWN STATE BANK 

The Germantown State Bank was established in June, 

1904 as successor to the Bank of Germantown. The stock- 
holders ore E. R. Gurney, W. E. Daily, and J. W. Daily. 
Capital stock, $7,500 Officers: E. R. Gurney, president; 
W. E. Daily, vice-president; J. W. Daily, cashier. Accord- 
ing to statement of the cashier, deposits Sep. 1, 1904 were 

$50,000. 

FIRST STATE RANK OF PLEASANT DALE 

This bark was organized in tbe spring of 1902 with J. 
H. Merrill, president; J. H. Bishop, vice-president; A. F. 
Ackerman, cashier; H. K. Frautz and E. Bartlett, directors. 
Capital stock, $5,000; deposits at this date, fifty-eight thous- 
and dollars. The bank owns and occupies a very tasty and 
complete brick building. It enjoys the confidence of the 
community, and seems to be in a very flourishing condition, 
and ig of great value to tbe business interests of the village. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 365 

STATE BANK OF BEE 

Organized Sep. 1, 1902; capital stock, $5,000; H. T. 
Jones, president; T. H. Wake, vice-president; W. B. Thorpe, 
cashier; deposits at this writing, $35,000. Bank owns a sub- 
stantial small brick building. Doing a very nice and satis- 
factory business. 

GOEHNER STATE BANK 

Was organized in Jan., 1903 with $5,000 capital, with A. 
G. McGrew, president and J. D. Hamilton, cashier. These 
with W. P. Niehouse were the principal stockholders. De- 
posits at present, $28,000. The bank occupies a nice brick 
building. The present officers are A. G. McGrew, presi- 
dent; W. F. Niehouse, vice-president; and A. E. Graff, cash- 
ier. The bank enjoys a first class credit. 

BANK OF STAPLEHURST 

Founded Feb. 8, 1886; capital stock, $5,000; L. Jorgen- 
sen, president; E. Jacobs, cashier; director, P. C. Nelson; in 
1901 the capital was increased to ten thousand dollars, 
with $2,000 surplus earnings. The bank has an excellent 
brick structure. The institution is in a flourishing condi- 
tion and enjoys a splendid business. The present president 
is E. Jacobs; J. L. Jorgensen, cashier. 



CHAPTER XX. 



STATE INSTITUTIONS OF SEWARD COUNTY 



SOLDIERS AND SAILORS' HOME 

The twenty- fourth session of the legislature, which con- 
vened Jan. 1, 1895, House Roll No. 284, was passed and ap- 
proved by the governor April 9, 1895, establishing a branch 
of the Soldiers and Sailors Home within a mile of Milford, 
Nebraska, on conditions as follows: Provided a lease for 
two years to the state of thirty-five acres of ground and 
buildings, known as the Sanitarium Park and Springs. 
Situated on the nwi of nw^i of section 12, township 9, range 
3, east of 6th P. M. in Seward county, Nebraska, together 
with the three-story brick and stone buildings thereon. 
This act carried an appropriation of eight thousand dollars. 
In due time the lease was executed and the state took form- 
al possession and the Home was dedicated September, 1895 
with appropriate ceremonies. 

Capt'ain J. H. Culver was installed as first commander 
with his son. Lieutenant Elvin E. Culver, as Adjutant with- 
out salary. Isaac Brockin was the first soldier admitted 
October 1, 1895. J. P. Adams was next admitted same day. 
Up to November 19th, there had been received ten addition- 
al soldiers, as follows: Lorenzo S. Miller, W. Shultz, John S. 
Patton, J. A. Littlefield, B. P. Culp, John Resh and Felix 
Cornabe, (still members) David Daud, J. W. Cleney and Joy 
Wagner. On Christmas day Francis Jourden was admitted 
in time to partake of the feast of turkey. As commander, 
J. N. Fowler succeeded Culver and Charles Penn, the pres- 
ent commander succeeded Fowler. J. H. Perkinsen was the 
second adjutant, the first to receive pay from the state as 
adjutant, who was succeeded by Joseph Brooks, the present 
incumbent, who was appointed in 1901. There are one hun- 
dred and ten men and two women on the roll of membership. 



368 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

The officers inform us that it is possible to care for one hun- 
dred and twenty-five in present quarters, and that when the 
building under construction is complete, the capacity will be 
sufficient for two hundred. The old building is in a good 
state of repair and everything has been done by the state to 
make the place a pleasant dwelhng place for the old boys. 

In our numerous visits to the Home we have sought in- 
formation from the inmates and officers as to the actual con- 
ditions. Nearly all of the boys express themselves as well 
satisfied. They are generally cheerful and as happy and 
contented as we could hope to see them, considering that 
many of them are very feeble and some almost helpless. 
We found most of them with smiles upon their faces, and 
our greeting among them has always been hearty. The 
boys about all agree that the officers are very attentive 
to the wants of all the inmates and that kindness rules 
every hour. We were pleased to sit at the table with the 
boys and then with the officers, and we found that all fared 
alike. The tables are supplied with all the necessaries and 
many luxuries. Am glad to tell the readers that our dear 
old boys are kindly cared for. 

The grounds of the Home are ideal. Situated on the 
crown of a beautiful little hill, furnishing iDerfect drainage, 
over- looking avast stretch of the Blue River valley, with its 
long line of timber forming graceful semi-circles up and 
down the broad valley, with the western slope of the plain 
to the eastward which is crowned by the buildings of the 
Industrial Home, with clusters of timber and orchards, with 
green fields and meadows, unsurpassed for loveliness, with 
the bustling village just at the northwest, forming a back 
ground too beautiful for my poor pen to describe. The 
grounds have a gentle incline to the eastward and southward. 
The grand river comes sweeping by around a gentle curve, 
rushing over riffles of rocky bed and the little creek joining 
it just to the southeast, all beautiful with native trees, what 
could be more delightful y The old building is stately and 
majestic and the new one is said to be the best specimen of 
architecture in Nebraska and will be fitted up with all mod- 
ern appliances for the care of the sick and disableed. They 
are now inaugurating a power plant to supply water, light 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 369 

and heat to every part of the buildings. Have a new power 
house 27x45 fitted with a Kewanee boiler and splendid dina- 
mo. These have been constructed under the supervision of 
James Tyler, state architect and J. J. Butler, superintendent. 
The new buildings are so thoroughly substantial that it is 
possible for them to stand and be useful a thousand years. 
Many members of the Home testify as to the value of the 
mineral springs of refreshing water that comes gushing from 
the rocky banks of the river. Many cases of rheumatism 
and kidney diseases are reputed to be greatly benefited or 
cured by the use of them. The state and Seward county can 
justly be proud of the Soldier's Home at Milford. 

Rev. Dr. Joseph Presson was appointed conimander, Feb- 
ruary 6, 1905, and assumed duties of the office, March 16, 
1905, and he appointed M. R. Persinger adjutant. Comman- 
dant Presson is making many valuable improvements in and 
around the Home. 



INDUSTRIAL HOME AT MILFORD 

By an act of the legislature this humane institution was 
established and the Home was founded in 1887. It was lo- 
cated on forty acres of beautiful land one mile east of Milford 
in a sightly location, overlooking the splendid valley of the 
Blue for many miles northward and southward and having 
in its front the handsome village with its great mill and 
the fine edifices of the Soldiers Home. For a back ground 
it has an array of farms magnificent, with the rail road 
skirting near its northern border. Under the guiding hands 
of the Board of public lands and buildings, two com- 
modious structures have been erected with all modern ap- 
pliances for the proper care of the inmates, each containing 
twenty-five neat and thoroughly furnished rooms besides 
closets, bath rooms, etc. A fine power house to furnish 
water, heat and light to every appartment. Beautiful trees 
furnish ample shade and the place would seem a little Para- 
dise. So far as we could see, it looks like a little Heaven 
below. The Home was dedicated in 1888 and the first in- 
mate was admitted May 1, 1889. At the present writing the 
number of women (rather girls) in the Home is twenty-eight. 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 371 

Present capacity is about fifty. In this enumeration children 
are not counted. Five hundred and seventy-six ^irls have 
been admitted to this date. Babes are furnished homes in 
respectable families as soon as possible, but are under the 
watchful care of lady managers, of whom Mrs. Thos. Gra- 
ham, of Seward, is one. 

In the first biennial report we glean the following facts: 
The first board of trustees consisted of sixteen ladies of high 
standing, as follows: Mesdames G. W. Clark, C. E. Cas- 
caden, W. B. Smith, N. W. Harlan, L. H. Russell, T. L. 
Norval, Todd, L. W. Roehne, M. M. Davison, G. McDowel 
C. H. Gere, O. N. Humphry, E. E. Brown, Dr. Froeder 
Lankton, M. I. Band, and W. S. Latta. 

First officers were Mrs. E. M. Perkins, superintendent; 
Mrs. E. Kent, matron; Mrs. E. L. Smith, teacher; Mrs. U. 
A. Whitaker, dress-maker; M. Williams, cook; Minnie 
Johnson, laundress; A. W. Patterson, engineer; Geo. Mar- 
greum, farmer. 

We scan from first report the following interesting facts: 
The whole number admitted up to November 30, 1890, was 57; 
of American parentage, 38; of foreign parentage, 19; 
number honorably discharged, 14; adults in Home, 21; num- 
ber of children born, 45; total number for whom homes were 
found, 16; number of children sent to Home of Friendless, 2. 

The institution is intended to be reformatory as well as 
charatable in character. Each inmate, when in good health, 
is required to perform useful labor, and are instructed in 
cooking, dress-making, general house work and nursing. 
A school is maintained in which the common English 
branches are taught. Religious services are held every 
Sabbath. The whole atmosphere of the Home is moral and 
the poor inmates are pointed to a higher and better life and 
many leave the Home with high resolves to lead noble lives, 
and we learn that many have gone out to become worthy and 
valuable women in the world. 

The last biennial report issued November 30, 1902, 
gives many interesting facts; we quote as far as our space 
will allow: Total number of adults at the Home Dec. 1, 1900, 
29; number admitted to Dec. 1, 1902, 60. Average age of 
inmates is 19h years. Number returned to friends, 41; num- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 373 

ber married, 14; number placed in liomes to worli:, 28; num- 
ber in Home Dec, 1, 1902, 53; number of children in Home 
Dec. 1, 1900, 20; number Dec 1, 1902, 23; number born in the 
two years, 56; number transferred to Home of Friendless, 3; 
adopted, 5; total number of adults and children cared for 
each year, 82, at an average cost of 93 cents per week per 
capita. We note that the total appropriations for maintain- 
ance for the two years was $21,150, and the amount paid out 
was $15,426.29, leaving a balance of $5,723.71. 

The present advisory board consists of three ladies, as 
follows: Mrs. Cullen Thompson, president; Mrs. Dr. Towne, 
vice-president; Mrs. Burlingame, secretary. Application 
committee: Mrs. A. J. Sawyer, Lincoln; Mrs. Thos. Graham, 
Seward. Officers: Miss Margaret Kaely. superintendent; 
Edith Sanders, physician; Hariet Shoaf, matron. Em- 
ployees: Etta Brooks, secretary and teacher; Lydia Dillen- 
beck, sewing teacher; Carn Johnson, nurse; W. G. Beach- 
ler, engineer; J. O. Kent, farmer. 

The Home is truly answering the high object for which 
it was created; sheltering, protecting and helping to reform 
the wayward and unfoi'tunate girls that desire a better life. 
They receive, by moral teaching and training, that uplift 
that will tend to respectability and usefulness. May the 
God of love and mercy bless the Industrial Home! 

Mrs. A. J. Albright was appointed superintendent in 
March, 1905. 



374 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




c 



o 



0- 

CD 



CHAPTER XXI. 



CITY OF SEWARD AND HER INSTITUTIONS 



Schools — Post Office — German College— Water Works— Electric Light 
Plant — Fire Department— Rail Road Business— Cereal Mills — Flour 
Mills— Brick Yard — Building and Loan Association. 



THE CITY OF SEWARD IN 1905 

Seward is not a great city and makes no pretentions in 
that line, but among the many beautiful cities of Nebraska 
that are doing nobly, Seward stands without a rival in its 
class as a city of bCciutif ul homes and of substantial wealth. 
Nearly every business interest of the city is housed in good 
substantial brick structures built on modern plans. The 
streets cross at right angles and are broad and clean. The 
drainage is as near perfect as nature could make it. The 
city stands upon a broad plateau sloping westward, south- 
ward and eastward. Blue river, with its beautiful fringes of 
timber forms the western and southern boundary, and Plum 
creek forms the eastern boundary. Lincoln creek, grand and 
beautiful, joins the river just at the west line of the city and 
materially helps to form a grand panorama. On this com- 
manding ground the city stands in a place of scenic beauty 
overlooking these streams as they meander through verdant 
fields forming graceful curves and semicircles. The city is 
nicely shaded throughout with handsome trees. Splendid 
brick sidewalks grace nearly all streets, there being now 
over ten miles of these walks that would be an ornament to 
a city of a hundred thousand people. Nearly all the resi- 
dence streets are neatly parked along the walks. 

About fifty commodious brick structures adorn the 
business streets where every mercantile interest is repre- 
sented. Three lovely parks furnish ample play grounds for 
the people where rest and shade are attractions. These, be- 



376 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

sides the fair grounds, known as the finest and best improved 
of any in the west. These M'ith scores of palatial residences 
adorning every street; with gardens of transcendent beauty, 
with nine churches wiiere the good people may worship, 
with her splendid high school and growing college, with her 
great mills, and last but not least, her new grand court 
house that will adorn our public square. With her excel- 
lent water and water system, and her electric light plant, 
with her perfect telephone system. Her well kept public li- 
brary and thousand other conveniences, with ten daily mails 
and ten regular passenger trains, and ten regular freight 
trains reaching out in six directions, with twenty-five hun- 
dred prosperous and happy i^eople, making Seward like 
an "apple o£ gold set in a picture of silver." 

It is an ideal home place, growing more and more beau- 
tiful as the years roll on, surrounded by a farming country 
equal to the best on this green earth. She will grow in im- 
portance through all the years to come. She that was 
known in other years as the "sleeping beauty of the Blue 
valley" has thoroughly awakened and is now known as the 
most busy sparkling gem of these western prairies. 



SEWARD SCHOOLS 



OUR OLD LOG SCHOOL HOUSE 

Away back in 1866 when this land of our was yet new 
and while Seward had not yet been named, a few pioneers 
decided that a school was a necessity. Our district was yet 
without a number and its boundaries were quite indefinite. 
Its eastern boundary was the east line of the county, its 
northern and western boundaries were the channel of the 
Platte river and the southern boundary was a matter of con- 
tention between we people and the settlement at Milford. 
Some portions of our district did not take much interest in 
our school house or our school. The three or four ranch- 
men along the Platte seemed quite indifferent. The one 
settler at the Oak Grove, John Scott, had not heard of the 
arrangement, and those fellows away down the river were 
looking for something nearer home. So we only had help 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



377 



from those livino- within a radius of about tive miles. The 
interested parties consisted of thirteen familes scattered 
aloni? Plum Creek, Lincoln Creek and the Blue. A school 
meeting: was called late in the summer of 1866. We met on 
the prairie near Mrs. Spears' present home. We had no 
school officers, no school fund, no money and no credit. 




The Old Seward School House 

We voted no bonds, but we voted a school house. We 
taxed ourselves each four round logs to be delivered on the 
ground. Lewis Moftit taxed himself one acre of ground, 
worth a dollar and a quarter, and we taxed ourselves with 
the necessary labor to construct the edifice. We searched 
our premises to find a few 8x10 window glass and a few 
rough boards to construct a door and a few benches. We 
made wooden hinges to hang the door. We used the virgin 
prairie sod for a tioor. We cut willows along the river to 
cover the structure, then we ploughed sod with which to 
shingle it, and soon we rejoiced that we had a place to send 
our children to school, and that we had a meeting house, a 



378 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

court house, and an election booth all our own and not a 
cent in debt. This log shanty served* a noble purpose for 
several years and until the village was on a footing to grap- 
ple with something better. 

The first term of school was commenced in early No- 
vember and ended into a violent blizzard in January, 1867. 
There were thirty-two scholars in attendance. As a matter 
of curiosity we will mention their names as far as memory 
serves us. Miss Sarah Imlay, later Mrs. A. Anderson, 
Josephine Imlay, now Mrs. J. Williams, Addison and D. M. 
Imley, John Clark, .James Jasper, Marrian and Douglas 
Roberts, Mary Moffitt, now Mrs. D. P. Imlay, Elsie Clark, 
now Mrs. C. Boyes, Mirum Clark, now Mrs. Stubb, Moulton 
and Victor Clark, Leroy Moffitt, Fred Garner, Kate J. Cox, 
now Mrs. J. A. Ruly, Nettie M. Cox, later Mrs. F. Pingree, 
Rolla Cooper, Lucy Clark, two other Cooper boys, names 
forgotten. The balance of the little flock are lost to 
us in the hui'rying crowds of the world. Many of 
that company have gone to their long home, yet it 
is a source of pride and X3leasure that so many scholars 
that waded snow drifts across bleak prairies that dread- 
ful winter to that humble cabin, have made honorable 
marks in the world. Among them we count two ministers, 
four business men, two successful teachers, both gone to 
their reward, one doctor, some good farmers, some noble 
mothers and some grand mothers. We are glad that we had 
the honor of being the lirst teacher in the long line of honora- 
ble men and women who have led the youth of our communi- 
ty along the plain to higher ground. 

As stated in the above, the old log cabin served the 
people until the fall of 1870. Mr. Cox was succeeded by 
S. C. Ross and Miss Ella Tuttle, now Mrs. Martin Ligett. 
Then the old cabin was pulled down and moved away, and 
what was known for years as the old swaybacked house, 
which occupied the lot where H. Vanderhoof 's house now 
stands, was rented and Miss Mattie Boyes, now Mrs. K. 01m- 
stead, taught. Next L. G. Johns built a little building on 
Butler block corner and taught and was followed by 
Miss McKillip, now Mr. Johns' good wife. 

In about 1871, Dist. No. 9 was organized and built asmall 




New Se>ward High School Building 



380 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

school house on the grounds now occupied by the high school 
buildings and H. M. Coleman taught the first term in it, and 
was followed by J. D. Messenger. About this time Prof. O. 
S. Ingham taught several terms of private school in the old 
court house, and was followed by Miss Ella Benson, now 
Mrs. C. L. Lewis. This lady was employed in various de- 
partments in our schools twelve consecutive years. The 
old high school building (brick) was erected in 1874 and 
Prof. Ingham was principal for two years with Mrs. A. S. 
Padock, Mrs. Merrill and Miss Benson as assistants. 
Since that time (1876) the following persons have superin- 
tended the schools: Mr. Phillips, H. H. Wilson, J. M. Scott, 
H. Cummins, W. J. Wise, N. F. Daun, J. F. Burkett, J. S. 
Van Eaton, W. W. Stoner and F. C. Williams. 

Among the noble teachers that finished their work and 
gone to their reward were, A. A. Dershimer, Miss Berge, 
Miss June Taylor and Miss Nettie M. Cox. 

The board of education soon found a lack of room for 
the growing school and added a large addition to the high 
school building, and added from time to time frame build- 
ings for the lower grades until they had five of these frame 
buildings in different parts of the city. In 1904 these frame 
structures were disposed of and a large new brick was 
erected at a cost of thirteen thousand dollars. It is a beauti- 
ful structure, built on modern plans with all useful furnish- 
ings. It contains one audience room with seating capacity 
for five hundred guests. It was dedicated with appropriate 
ceremonies in September, 1904. This is considered one of 
the finest school buildings in the state. In 1888 there had 
been ten classes graduated and at that time the cost of main- 
tainance was $5,000 per annum. In 1905 they graduated 
the 23d class. The present corps of teachers are 13; scho- 
lars enrolled in 1905, is about 500. Cost of maintainance in 
1904 was about $9,000. 

The school is progressive and ranks high among the 
schools of the state. Among the many prominet members 
of the school boards of the past, Claudius Jones, H. L. 
Boyes, G. Babson, all now dead, and R. S. Norval, Mrs. S. 
C. Langworthy, Mrs. E. M. Spear, A. J. Calender, andD. C. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 381 

Work. The present board is composed of Dr. P. A. Marsh, 
L. J. Anderson, R. E. Dumphey, H. M. Miller, William 
Moore and D. E. Holland. 



HISTORY OF THE SEWARD POST-OFFICE 

In 1864, 1865, 1866, the settlers of this vicinity got their 
mail in a sort of a hap-hazard way. Some of it was directed 
to Camden, some to Lancaster, some to Nebraska City, and 
perhaps some to Plattsmouth; and it was the custom for ev 
ery person visiting any of the offices to enquire for all the 
neighborhood. 

In the winter of 1866-67, the citizens met and consulted 
about getting a postoffice. It was urged that Lewis Moflitt 
ought to take the office as he lives on the prospective town 
site, but he declined the honor, and the settlement was non- 
plussed and did not know just what to do. 

During the winter the writer took it into his head that 
he would try to find a solution to the question, and wrote to 
our delegate in congress (John Taffe) and begged him to go 
over to the department and secure the appointment of Lewis 
Moffitt as postmaster for Seward, Nebr. , which he imme- 
diately proceeded to do, and aQ of a sudden Mr. Moffitt re- 
ceived his appointment. He felt sold, but it would not do 
to back square out, so he qualified and accepted the inev- 
itable; and when he fully realized the munificent salary of 
$1 per month or twelve dollars per year, he became fully 
reconciled. Now we had a postoffine but no mail route. 
The government allowed two dollars per quarter for mail 
service, but men were not quite so anxious for place then as 
now, and we had to hold out other and better inducements. 
So we made up a pony purse sufficient to pay one dollar and 
fifty cents per week, and hired E. L. Clark, a one-armed sol- 
dier, to make the trip once a week to Camden at the freight 
road. Mr. Clark made his trips on foot and carried the mail 
in an old haversack, so we were pretty well supplied with 
mail, but it cost many of us pretty dearly. Mr. Moffitt re- 
tained the office until July, 1868, when he resigned his lucra- 
tive trust to W. R. Davis. Mr. Davis held the office in the 
store of Beaty & Davis. His salary was twelve dollars per 



382 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

year at first, but under fine manipulation an advance to 
twenty-five dollars was soon secured. At that time the pay 
of the postmaster was p^auged by the amount of postage sold, 
and friend Davis urged every one to take just as many post- 
age stamps as possible in the way of change, etc. He had 
to make a good showing, and he did. Postage stamps were 
good property and everybody had plenty of them. 

Our first government mail route was established in July, 
1869, between here and Lincoln, via the Oak Groves. At 
first it was a weekly concern, and within the following year 
it became a semi-weekly, and finally a tri-weekly. Some 
said it was a tri-weekly because they tried every week to 
get mail through but frequently failed. Mr. Davis retained 
the office until the spring of 1871, when he resigned and E. 
L. Clark secured the appointment. The salary had advanced 
to fifty dollars per year under Mr. Davis' administration, 
and his last quarter had shown such an increase of business 
that the salary was raised to $240 per year, and in 1872 it 
was fiirther advanced to $320. L. G. Johns was appointed 
in January, 1873, and held the office until January, 1877. His 
salary was increased by degrees until it reached $1300 per 
annum and $240 per year for clerk hire. When he took pos- 
session, there was only one daily mail from Lincoln. Dur- 
ing 1873, railroad mail service was introduced. There were 
established during his administration, star routes as follows: 
to York, tri- weekly; Crete to Columbus, tri-weekly; Orton 
and Stromsburg, semi- weekly; Seward and Dorchester, tri- 
weekly. 

Money order office was established in July, 1872. The 
largest money order business was done in 1873, prior to the 
opening of our first bank. 

When Mr. Johns took possession, the fixtures of the 
office consisted of a desk and- a case of pigeon holes worth 
about $20. He placed $300 worth of fixtures in the office. 

Bedford received his appointment in January 1877, and 
held the place about four years, when Chas. Vanpelt re- 
ceived the appointment, in 1881. During Mr. V's tenure, 
the Morris keyless lock was introduced into the office. 
During his term the salary was at its maximum; or $1700 
per annum. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



383 




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384 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

There were two semi -weekly star routes until 1<'~!S4, and 
there were during his whole term four daily mails by rail. 

John Kettle received his appointment July 1, 1885. Star 
routes all closed Six daily mails and arrangements nearly 
perfected for two more. Value of fixtures, about $2,000 hav- 
ing just put in a new and complete outfit of improved Mor- 
ris lock boxes, which is said to be one of the finest in the 
west. Box rent amounts to $170 per quarter. Money order 
business is about $2,000 per quarter. 

E. A. Polley succeeded Mr. Kettle in 1889 and C. S. Ai- 
ling succeeded Polley in 1893. Died in office and was suc- 
ceeded by Joseph Dupin in the summer of 1894, and in 1897, 
P. G. Simmons succeeded Dupin, and he resigned in Februa- 
ry, 1900, and Wm. Royer, the present incumbent, was ap- 
pointed in April, 1900. Seward is now' served with ten mails 
six days in the week and four on Sunday. There are at the 
present w^'iting six rural routes out of Seward. There are 
nineteen in the county. The county has twelve postoflices. 
Sew^ard is yet in the list of third class oftices, but almost 
ready to enter the second class list. Her showing of busi- 
ness during 1904 was $6,594.30, and only lacking less than 
$1,500 to place it on the second class list. Salary now paid 
the postmaster is $1,800, with office rent, fuel and lights fur- 
nished. The government pays $450 per annum rent with 
fuel and lights. Box rent collected in 1904 was $493.23. 
Money orders sold in 1904 were 6,595, aggregating approxi- 
mately $20,000. 

The rural routes have a tendency to cut down receipts 
from box rent. During the fall of 1904, the location of the 
office was changed to new and rnore commodious quarters. 
Nasby used to have much to say about the postoffice at the 
corners, but Seward can talk about her postoffice on the al- 
ley. The present quarters are quite an improvement on 
the old, yet it is nothing for our flourishing city to be proud 
of. The room is cramped and narrowly constructed to say 
the least: It is not up to the needs of a growing and pros- 
perous city like this. The office at Milford, probably less 
than half the patronage of this, maintains an office that 
would make any citizen of Seward ashamed of his town, or 
rather his postoffice at the alley. What Seward needs and 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



385 




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386 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

is fully entitled to is a government postoffice built on modern 
plans, with rooms and fixtures commensurate with the grow- 
ing needs of this wide-awake community, and we deem it 
high time for the citizens to take this important matter in 
hand and see that our congressman "gets a move on him- 
self. " The large towns have been most wonderfully pro- 
vided for. Now it is about time that the county towns of 
the country should have a hand in the creek. 

The amount, of money spent on that great castle in 
Omaha would put a very respectable office building in every 
county seat in Nebraska. The time has fully come when 
the country people should let congress know that they have 
some rights that should be respected. 

We cannot close this chapter without a word in regard 
to the postoffices of the county. 

The first office was established at the old Camden bridge 
just by the south line of the county, and at the forks of the 
river, at the old ranch, in 1863. 

Thus we have endeavored to trace as nearly as possible, 
step by step, our postoffice business and mail service through 
all its stages from the beginning of our settlement here un- 
til the present time. 

We would not have the reader understand that we are 
casting any reflection upon the owner of our postoffice build- 
ing, but the narrow policy of the postoffice department in 
dealing with small cities. 



GERMAN NORMAL SCHOOL 

German Evangelical Lutheran Teachers' Seminary of 
Seward, Nebraska, was founded in the spring of 1894. Some 
of the enterprising German American citizens, led by such 
men as Herman Diers, J. P. Goehner and O. E. Bernecker, 
determined that it was the right thing to do to build an in- 
stitution of learning where their children could have an op- 
portunity of a classical education, and especially an educa- 
tion as would qualify the young people for teachers. 

The school was organized under the control of the 
Lutheran' Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other states. Twenty 
acres of beautiful land was secured by the citizens of Se- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



387 



ward just to the northeast and adjoining; the city, where a 
very commodious and creditable brick building was erected 
and ready for the opening of school in the autumn of 1894. 

The first board of directors were Rev. J. Hilgendorf, 
John F. Goehner, Herman Diers and O. E. Bernecker. 
Herman Diers became treasurer. The present board con- 
sists of Rev. C. H. Becker, Rev. H . Miesoler, of Columbus, 
Neb., Herman Diers, J. F. Goehner and O. E. Bernecker, 
with Herman Diers, treasurer. 




German College Building 

The main building is of brick on a stone foundation, 
43x70 feet and three stories above the basement. A dorma- 
tory annex 32x32, a substantial two-story frame structure. 
The school opened with an enrollment of but sixteen stu- 
dents, but it' was destined to grow and it has grown from 
year to year. In 1904, or in just ten years, it numbered 
eighty-four students, twenty-one of which graduated in the 
class of 1904. The students of 1904 came from the following 
states: Nebraska 96, Iowa 6, Kansas 5, Missouri 2, Colorado 
1, Wyoming 1. 

Professor Geo. Weller has been principal from the be- 
ginning, and has associated with him for the last two years 
Prof. Geo. Ritzmann, and also for the last year. Prof. F. 
Strieker. Thus far the school has been preparatory to the 
"Adison Normal School of Illinois, but is designed in the near 
future to extend the course of instruction to that of a full 
normal course. Thus far the school has been ably con- 



388 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

ducted and made very successful under the able corps of 
instructors and wise and generous management of the di- 
rectors. It is the design to expend about $35,000 in new 
buildings within the next two years. 

There is much here to encourage a rapid growth in this 
institution whose foundation has been so well and firmly 
laid in this rich soil. The denomination has a very strong 
hold in Nebraska and especially in Seward county, where 
they have twelve large congregations of thrifty people. We 
can see in this institution in the years to come, one of the 
great rich institutions of which our country is so proud. We 
are informed that the English language holds the most 
prominent place in the course of study. German and Latin 
take next rank. All the branches of the normal course, also 
music, are taught. We are proud of this good beginning 
and have abiding faith that it will, in the years to come, 
grow and prosper and be a great blessing to our people, 
shedding beams of light to brighten the lives of our 
young people and prepare them for honorable positions in 
life. We hope that every good intelligent citizen of the 
county may at all times lend a helping hand and words of 
encouragement to this grand undertaking. 

We have the pleasure of placing before our reader a 
fine view of the beautiful structure that now adorns their 
grounds. 



SEWARD CITY WATER WORKS 

At a meeting of the city council, held July 25, 1889, no- 
tices were ordered of an election to be held on the 19th day 
of August, 1889, for the purpose of voting for or against a 
proposition of issuing thirty thousand dollars of six per 
cent twenty year bonds, payable at option of the city at any 
time after five years from date of issue, and to bear date of 
Sep. 16, 1889. The proposition also provided that the city 
authorities should levy an annual tax upon the property of 
the city to pay the interest upon the bonds and also to pro- 
vide a sinking fund for the liquidation of said bonds; the 
money obtained from the sale of the bonds to be used for 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



389 




390 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the establishment of a system of water works to supply the 
city and its inhabitants. 

The election took place on the 19th day of August, 1889, 
and resulted in a majority for the bonds of two hundred and 
seventy-two, there being only forty-seven votes against the 
proposition. The bonds were issued bearing date of Sep. 
16, 1889, sixty in number of $500 eacli, with twenty, six per 
cent coupons attached. They were sold to StuU Brothers 
for a premium of eighty-one dollars. 

Now with $30,081 cash cai^ital, the council proceeded to 
business and made contracts as follows, all within a few 
weeks. First contract was let to A. F. Cook for the sink- 
ing of two two-hundred-foot wells for $1200 each, with a 
proviso that contractor was to have two dollars per foot for 
each additional foot. He guaranteed one hundred thousand 
gallons of water for each well every twenty-four hours. 
Next was let to Tamaqua Mfg. Co. for forty-eight hydrants 
at $29 each. The third contract was awarded Brownell & 
Co. for two boilers at $1380. 

Fourth was let to J. P. Dunam for the construction of 
an engine house at $1425. 

Fifth, a contract for a standpipe was let to Porter & 
Jackson Co. at $3800. 

. Sixth was let to U. S. Engine Co. for twenty-nine valves 
at $448.50 

Seventh was let to Pond Engineering Co. for steam pump 
at $1550. 

Eighth contract was with the Gutta Percha Rubber Co. 
for two hose carts and twelve hundred feet of hose at $1400. 

Ninth was with Bullock & Co. for stone at $450. 

Tenth was with Goering to haul stone from cars at $3 
per car of twenty tons each. 

Eleventh was contract with A. A. Richardson to super- 
intend construction of standpipe. 

Twelfth was contract with J. J. Cummins to superintend 
the general construction of water works at a salary of $100 
per month. 

Now the real trouble begins. Many attempts to secure 
an ample supply of water failed. A deep well was put down 
near the standpipe, six hundred and ten feet deep, but no 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



391 




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392 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

water supply was obtained. Then a well was sunk down 
near the F. E. & M. V. tracks, which for a time promised 
well. Good buildings were erected there and all the machin- 
ery was set in motion; but soon the water failed. Then ex- 
periments were resorted to by sinking many wells and draw- 
ing the water to a common center. The standpipe was com- 
pleted and four and one-half miles of mains were laid, and a 
mass of first class machinery was placed, and the water 
works were very complete, but where, Oh, where was the 
water! 

After many years of trouble and vast expenditure of 
means, the present great well was sunk in 1901, and happily 
at last an abundant supply of most excellent water was 
reached. The water works proper have cost the city some- 
thing over thirty-three thousand dollars, but the water has 
cost over forty thousand dollai's additional. 

The system is now very complete with a capacity of 
over a million gallons of the best water per day. The sale 
of water to citizens now pays running expenses and very 
nearly pays the interest on the outstanding bonded indebted- 
ness. Two thousand dollars of the bonds are taken up, and 
between forty and fifty thousand dollars additional expendi- 
tures are all paid. Seward now is proud of the magnificent 
plant and its supply of clear cold water. 



ELECTRIC LIGHT PLANT OF SEWARD 

In 1888, an electric light plant was first installed in our 
city, and was probably an up-to-date plant for that day. It 
was a private corporation, and like all such concerns, it ran 
the machine for the money in sight and did not render satis- 
actory service. This caused a deep seated feeling on the 
part of the more progressive citizens that the city should 
own and operate its own plant in the interest of the people. 
This culminated in a proposition to issue city bonds in the 
sum of seven thousand dollars. This action was ratified by 
the voters of the city on the 28th of August, 1903, when 
three and one-half per cent bonds were issued. At the same 
time there was a fund of thirty-five hundred dollars in the 
treasury and it was found entirely practical to utilize the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 393 

city water plant so far as the buildings, boilers and pumps 
were concerned, and thus save something like five thousand 
dollars of outlay. The plant was so far completed that the 
new plant was installed in the spring of 1904. 

The total cost of the plant aside from the machinery of 
the w^ater works was twelve thousand three hundred dollars. 
They have at this writing twenty-five miles of wire in use, 
with twenty-three arc lights in the streets, and three thous- 
and incandescent lamps in operation; of the latter, the num- 
ber is rapidly increasing. A one hundred and twenty horse 
power Westinghouse dynamo of the latest and most improved 
pattern is in use, and it is a "dandy." 

So far the plant is furnishing the street lights, paying 
the running expenses, earning interest on the bonds, and 
saving the ten per cent per annum on tlie total cost of the 
plant and from the earnings the city was prepared Jan. 1, 
1905, to take up one thousand dollars of the bonds. The pa- 
trons are well pleased with the servica, and are receiving 
this most excellent service at greatly reduced cost, so the 
system and management are' most satisfactory. It w^ill soon 
pay the entire debt and be an important source of rev^enue to 
the city. In this Seward is a leader among young western 
cities, and has set a pattern that other cities will gladly fol- 
low. Much of the success of this important undertaking is 
due to our most efficient electrician and manager, Mr. Martz. 



SEWARD FIRE ASSOCIATION 

The Seward Fire Association was organized March 20, 
1885, with H. Diers, J. C. Mulfinger and L. J. Simmons as a 
board of trustees; articles of incorporation w^ere filed in the 
county clerk's office. Before this date the records ai-e in- 
complete, but it is known that the association had existed as 
the Seward Fire Department and was organized about 1879, 
with three companies. Some think it may have been at an 
earlier date, but the earliest enrollment we can find in the 
records is Herman Diers and J. J. Blodgett, dated May '29, 
1879, and the next date found in records is B. L. Krouse, 
May 30, 1881. 

March 6, 1885, we find a list of six honorary and exempt 



394 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

members: Wm. Pratt, J. A. Campbell, J. H. Betzer, J. W. 
Dupin, J. A. Kilpatrick and S. B. Reed. In 1886 we find on 
the list of honorary and exempt members, Herman Diers, 
who had served six years and nine months, and J. J. Blod- 
gett, with equal honors. 

Jan. 2, 1885, we find the first recorded list of officers : 
Chief, G. Babson, third term; assistant, F. Wooley, second 
term; secretary, L. J. Simmons, first term; treasurer, Her- 
man Diers, first term; trustees, H. Diers, L. J. Simmons and 
J. C. Mulfinger; J. J. Blodgett, secretary to trustees. 

At this date, Feb. IU05, we find the department has six- 
ty active members, twenty-four in the hook and ladder com- 
pany, and eighteen in each of two hose companies. The 
last treasurer's report shows a cash balance in the treasury 
of $1011.38. The present officers are L. H. Diers, chief; J. 
Goering, assistant chief; and Harry Graff, secretary and 
treasurer. 

We copy the following from an address at a firemen's 
banquet held at Seward some years ago (date not given) by 
G. Babson: 

"In 1878, the only fire appai'atus was a three gallon Bab- 
cock extinguisher, owned by Thos. Wolf, editor of the Re- 
porter. In April, 1879, it did excellent service in putting out 
a fire in the basement of Kribler's furniture house. In the 
following spring the council purchased two three-wheeled 
Babcock extinguishers and a hook and ladder truck. They 
were stored in Marshall's livery barn. Our first call one 
night we had an awful struggle to get the apparatus from 
behind carriages and buggies just to find a pile of brush and 
weeds on fire. The department was organized May 20, 1879. 
J. C. Henderson was appointed chief by the city council; Ed. 
Polly was appointed foreman of Company No. 1, Wm. Ash- 
ton, No. 2, and Geo. Blodgett, No. 3, hook and ladder, with 
Jack Hanly, assistant. Our drill practice was regular for a 
time. Once we had a small fire, but the engines had stood 
idle so long that they refused to woi^k. Later th-e company 
was re-organized with J.C. Henderson, chief: G. Babson, as- 
sistant; John Mulfinger, foreman of No. 1, Dick Sampson, 
No. 2., and H. Diers, No. 3. From this time drills were held 
regularly, and the department became efficient and ready for 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 395 

business. Gus. Babson was chief from 18H3 to 1887 and F. 
Wooly assistant for most of the time, and in 1887 he became 
Babson's successor. We had many liard runs and were usu- 
ally fortunate in being able to stop tires before much dam- 
age was done. In Feb., 1883, we were all frost bitten in a 
long run to the northeast part of town when the thermome- 
ter registered thirty degrees below zero. We had many 
fires, such as Stillwell's barn, the old skating rink. Grand 
Central hotel, and in 1886, the Park hotel. In 1890, Feb. 
20th, the department established a reading room and library 
and at the end of that year had 274 books in use. Five 
years later this was turned over to the city with about six 
hundred volumes. It was the nucleus of the present city li- 
brary. At the first firemen's tournament held at Lincoln in 
the fall of 1884, our department attended with fifty men in 
uniform, with Gerke's band. We won the hook and ladder 
race and Mr. Mulfinger's company won the ladies' silk banner 
for the best drilled company. We came home happy. Jan. 
12, 1886, the state association met at Seward, which was a 
pleasant time for all the boys." 

Stillwell's barn burned in 1884, and in April, 1885, the 
rink burned. Dec. 12, 1885, the Grand Central hotel burned. 

It has been a pleasure to know how etficient and self- 
sacrificing the Seward fire boys have been all through the 
years. Their work is entirely voluntary, but somehow they 
are always ready at the tap of the bell. They run like wild 
cats and work like tigers. They have saved many disas- 
trous conflagrations and are entitled to the gratitude of all 
our people. All the consideration they receive is they arc 
freed from poll tax and exempt as jurors, and after five 
years' service they are entirely free from poll tax. Some of 
the boys have now served ten years or more. We are ready 
to vote the fire department any reasonable favor they can 
ask for. 



BURLINGTON RAIL ROAD BUSINESS FOR 1904 

The Burlington's part in the business of Seward in the 
year 1904. 



396 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



The tickets sold at Seward station in the year each 



month are 


as follows: 












January, 


number of tickets, 


1505 


cash received, 


$2352 48 


February, 






1458 






2204 35 


March 






1561 






2134 96 


April 






1487 






1877 70 


May 






1762 






2015 97 


June 




( 


1818 






2125 72 


July 






1484 






2194 19 


August 






2292 






4641 81 


September 






2061 






3854,17 


October 






1963 






3342 02 


November 






1740 






2377 75 


December 






1744 






2698 06 



20875 $31819 18 

There was shipped from the Seward station during 1904 

178 cars of live stock, 119 cars of wheat, corn and oats, 60 
cars of eggs, 169 cars of products, (products of flour and of the 
cereal mills) 25 cars uf brick, 37 cars of miscellaneous arti- 
cles. 

Received during the year, 64 cars of lumber, 215 cars of 
coal, 16 cars of implements, 311 car of miscellaneous articles, 
and 3,970,697 pounds of general merchandise, equaling 260 
car loads. Total freight collected, $75,000. Trains passing 
Seward daily; Passenger — 8 trains six days in the week 
and 4 on Sundays. Freight — 8 daily except Sunday and 6 
Sundays. 

Some seasons of the year when grain and stock moves 
freely, the number of extra trains is surprisingly great. 
One noticeable feature of the out-going freight is the eggs. 
Sixty car loads, or twenty-four thousand cases, or seven 
hundred and twenty thousand dozen. 

Freight business reported by Utica for the year 1904 is 
as follows: Shipped out 389 cars of gram, 68 cars of live 
stock, 14 cars of merchandise, total 471 cars. Received 71 
cars of coal, 27 cars of lumber, 91 cars of merchandise, total 

179 cars. Freight in less than car lots, 1,648,575 pounds. 
Freight charges collected, $16,423.31. Other stations re- 
fused to report. Let the responsibility rest where it belongs 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



397 



We did all that was reasonable to give the reader a correct 
idea of the rail road business from every station. 



C. N. W, RAIL ROAD 

The Northwestern Rail Road company received at Se- 
ward station during the year 1904, 224 cars of freight of all 
kinds and shipped out 357 cars of stock, grain and other 
merchandise, including 47 cars of poultry. 

The passenger traffic by months was as follows: 



January 


Local 


$401 


12 


Coupon $72 72 


February 




475 


31 


" ., 28 55 


March 




353 


97 


90 90 


April 




250 


07 


228 76 


May 




355 


52 


111 26 


June 




572 


95 


38 71 


July 




2544 


73 


209 16 


August 




638 


36 


398 95 


September 




550 


54 


360 18 


October 




582 


31 


181 85 


November 




482 


86 


93 60 


December 




477 


61 


382 65 


Grand total, 


$9,882.64. 


The N. 


W. is a branch road 



SEWARD CEREAL MILLS 

This is certainly an institution that we may all feel proud 
of. The present plant was erected on the ruins of the one 
destroyed by fire in the Autumn of 1895 and was ready for 
business in April of 1898. As it now stands it cost about 
twenty-five thousand dollars. It is owned by Seward people 
exclusively. The builders and principal owners are John 
Mulfinger, Geo. Harrison, John Zimmerer and Charles 
Barkley. The principal structure is 36x68, three stories 
above the basement and filled throughout with the latest 
and most approved machinery known to the trade for the 
manufacture of oat and corn products. Beside the main 
structure are the engine room, kiln room, grain ware house, 
storage building and office, each under separate roofs. The 
capacity of the mills is one hundred and forty barrels of 



398 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




U 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 399 

rolled oats and two hundred barrels of corn products per day, 
or three hundred and forty barrels per day, and gives em- 
ployment to from twelve to twenty persons at good wages. 
We are informed that pay checks are always ready for the 
workmen Saturday evening. 

It is a noteworthy fact that this institution can and al- 
ways does pay the farmers for a good article of oats or corn 
much better prices than the shippers can possibly pay, and 
it is safe to say that the farmers of Seward and surrounding 
counties are many thousands of dollars gainer by the existence 
of this grand plant. The company enjoy a large trade in ev- 
ery state and territory west of the Mississippi and is extend- 
ing to our island possession in the Orient. The trade mark, 
the "White Dove," is known far and wide as one of the best 
brands of rolled oats in the markets of the world. The bus- 
iness men of Seward and the laboring people as well as the 
farmers all have great reason to feel a great interest in the 
Cereal Mills of Seward. 



SEWARD MILLS 

The history of this valuable property is a part and a 
very important part of the history of this city. It was with 
great difficulty that the title of the water power was secured 
as an old land shark at Cincinnati, by the name of Geo. 
Hilton, had at an early day entered a large tract of timber 
land just near the mouth of Plum creek which included the 
forty acre tract where the mill now stands. The old iellow 
steadfastly refused to sell the property for a long time and 
seemed very obstinate in the matter until some of the neigh- 
bors took a hand, and wrote some letters to him that would 
not look well in print, which brought the old fellow to his 
senses and he concluded to sell the forty acre tract at ten 
dollars per acre to H. L. Boyes and the tirst work on the 
mill site was done in 1867. A brush dam was built and a saw 
mill was started, without shelter or roof, on the river bank in 
the spring of 1868. For a time this was a scene of great 
activity, as logs by the thousand were hauled long distances 
and the log yard, covering quite a space, was a sight to all 
beholders. In 1870, the company started the first mill to 



400 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 

grinding grain. This little affair was known far and wide 
as "Banner Mills." It was draped in red, white and blue, 
like the star spangled banner. It did good work and was 
run at its full capacity until an evil day came in 1871, when 
it became overloaded with farmer's grists. One night the 
w^hole bottom of the mill fell out and dumped the machinery 
and grain into the river. It was a woeful looking mess that 
we beheld one bright Sabbath morning. The river was 
strewn with grain in bursting sacks, loose grain, flour, feed 
and wrecked machinery all tangled in a heterogenious mass. 

This was a sad blow to the owners and to the community 
but, it must be rebuilt and the courageous owners immediately 
set to work and in due time all was set to rights and the mill 
wheels began again to turn. Some years later the little mill 
was torn down and a much larger one built in its place and 
as the business expanded, that one had to give way for a 
larger one. Then in 1H91, the third one was replaced by a 
large roller merchant mill, and in 1893, that great beautiful 
structure burned, but that will power and energy of its own- 
ers knew no such word as fail and in just one hundred days 
after the cruel flames had destroyed it, another and grander 
mill was ready for business. At that time Mr. Deane was 
associated with Mr. Carlos Boyes & Co. and remained a val- 
uable partner for a number of years, when Martin Hulsizer 
and Burdette Boyes, a grandson of the founder and son of 
Carlos, became partners. 

Size of the present mill is 40x72 feet and five stories 
high, with the best modern machinery throughout, having 
six double standard rollers for flour and three set for corn 
products, working capacity, one hundred and fifty barrels 
pel' day. Storage capacity, sixteen thousand bushels, water- 
power capacity, over one hundred horse power. Water gage 
of river at low water stage, four thousand cubic feet per 
minute. The company at this writing are engaged in filling 
a government contract of one million pounds of flour or forty 
car loads. 



BRICK YARD 

Seward's new brick yard, employing about forty hands 
and turning out 30,000 excellent brick per day, is something 



402 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

to be proud of. It is what is known as a draw kiln, where 
the fires never go out. With its great smoke stack tow^er- 
ing one hundred and ten feet, makes it conspicuous. 

Under the ab)e management of William Worthman and 
son, it is destined to add greatly to the business of our city. 
We are pleased to present to our readers a splendid picture 
of this valuable plant. 



BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATION 

Sew^ard Building and Loan Association was organized 
late in 1893, and early in 1H94 articles of incorporation were 
filed. February (ith the first officers were elected as follows: 
J. J. Blodget, president; John Zimmerer, vice president; 
Geo. Merrium, secretary and J. P. Goehner, treasurer; J. 
P. Dunham, J. H. Erford, W. H. Debolt, W. E. Longworthy, 
S. D. Atkins, J. J. Thomas and O. C. Reynolds, directors. 
Object of the association is to encourage people of moderate 
means to secure homes on easy payments. The plan con- 
templates the loan of means to assist in building or purchas- 
ing homes on payments about equal to the rent of like prem- 
ises, with low rates of interest. Each payment is divided so 
that the interest is kept up and part of the principal paid 
and thus in a few years the party has a home paid for. 

Under the faithful administration of the present presi- 
dent, John Zimmerer, the association has been quite a fact- 
or among the financial institutions of our city At the last 
report its assets amounted to $52,954.47. It is accomplish- 
ing much good in the community and has already helped 
scores of poor men to secure pleasant homes of their own. 



MUTUAL PROTECTIVE FIRE ASSOCIATION OF NEBRASKA 

The Mutual Protective Fire Association of Nebraska 
was organized at Seward, January 14, 1894. First oflicers 
were as follows: E. PoUey, president; Geo. Merrium, sec- 
retary; directors, Dr. J. T. Potter, H. C. Atwood, G. W. 
Meeker, I. L. Dermond, W. C. A. Hartman, J. M. Calder, J. 
F. Guss, E. J. Hartman, and Thos. Bishop. 

The business of the association extends to all parts of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 403 

the state. The business is confined by the charter to risks 
in cities and towns except such risks in country as churches, 
school houses, factories, etc. Had to July 4, 1904, issued 
5886 policies and to same date, paid in losses $23,608, and 
have $10,000 in the reserve fund and not a dollar of indebted- 
ness. 

The highest amount ever collected in premiums is 75 per 
cent of old line rates, and are writing policies at same rate 
now. The amount of insurance now in force is one million 
three hundred and forty-five thousand dollars. 

The present officers are, John Kribbeler, president 
John Zimmerer, vice-president; J. F. Goehner, treasurer 
Geo. A. Merrium, secretary; Landis & Shich, attorneys 
directors, J. M. Calder, Seward; Dr. J. T. Potter, Seward 
F. W. Rodenbrock, Nebraska City; T. J. Rademacher, Crete 
H. C. Atwood, Milford; I. J. Dermond, Beaver Crossing; D. 
J. Hartrum, Utica; Wm. Grabe, Wahoo; and Delevan Bates 
of Aurora. 

The company enjoys a splendid reputation for prompt- 
ness in the adjustment of all claims, and the business is rap- 
idly growing. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



MILFORD, ITS FOUNDING AND GROWTH 



Post office— Cereal Mills— News Papers— Pleasant Dale Schools— Utica, 
its growth and progress— Post Office— Village of Bee— Germantown 
Creamery— Germantown Post Office— Tamora Post Office— Grover 
Post Office— Early Railroading (story)— My first ride on a Rail. 



Milford was tirst settled by J. L. Davison in the spring 
of 1864. He built a log house on the site of the present 
hospital and opened a ranch on the steam wagon road. One 
of the first things he undertook was improving the ford be- 
tween the present bridges and the mill. For about two 
years Mr. Davison was "monarch of all he surveyed." In 
the winter of 1865 he built a substantial bridge. A few set- 
tlers had located on claims in the vicinity . In the spring of 
1866 Wm. H. Reed, of Weeping Water, became interested 
and a partnership was formed, and the mill from Weeping 
Water was moved and the nucleus of the village was formed. 
Soon thereafter, Henry Wortendyke became interested in 
the mill. Doom and Etherly opened the first store in 1868. 
It was the second store in the county. Milford soon took 
the lead as a business center and secured the location of the 
county seat. The first attorney resident of the county, Hon. 
D. C. McKillip, located in 1868 and soon Geo. B. France 
located in the new town and was ready to take a hand in the 
legal battles that ensued. L. D. Laune located by the new 
town in 1864. These matters are quite fully treated in an- 
other place, and we will not dwell on them here. Suffice it 
to say that the brave men that laid the foundations worked 
to build Milford with one hand and fought the enemy with 
the other. The place grew apace and prospered as the 
settlers came and occupied the lands adjacent. The great 
freight ]-oad and the mill were drawing cards, and the coun- 
ty seat, although held by an uncertain tenure, was a great 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 405 

help. Soon the irrepressable J. H. Culver came and he 
knew how to use the quill, and he used it effectually in help- 
ing to boom the town. Unfortunately the geographical po- 
sition was not quite as favorable as desirable to hold the 
county seat and Milford had wily foes to contend with; and 
with no fault of her energetic citizens, the county seat was 
wrested aw^ay from her in 1871. Still she liad a good fight- 
ing chance and the village continued to grow. However, in 
1872, the good people of the locality made a fatal mistake in 
not grasping the opportunity offered when the Midland Rail 
Road Co. offered to build the road from Lincoln to Milford 
and up the valley to Seward. This opportunity lost, placed 
the thriving village in the back ground and she must wait 
weary years until 1879 for a rail road when the Atchison & 
Nebraska was built. Then, at once, the village began a vig- 
orous growth and from that day to this it has been prosper- 
ous. It is a great grain center and with the help of the great 
cereal mills, it commands a trade of prodigious proportions. 

Prom the first Milford has been a popular resort and 
this has been a source of profit. For many years the peo- 
ple have taken an interest in public institutions, and by dint 
of perseverence two state institutions have come to them, 
(Soldiers' Home and Industrial Home). The village occu- 
pies a sightly position upon a commanding hill, overlooking 
the great valley away to the northward and southward in 
curves and semi-circles. The town is embowered in shade. 
The streets are broad and crossing at right angles and lined 
on either side with handsome homes. As the eye wanders 
up and down the long avenues it makes the heart glad to 
look upon these pleasant homes. The village, at the pres- 
ent writing has near eight hundred souls. At the last elec- 
tion there were 168 votes cast and the school census shows 
277, and from this we conclude that there are eight hundred 
people. 

There are eleven brick business houses in three blocks. 
The main business places are as follows: 4 general stores, 

1 grocery house, 2 drug stores, 3 hardwares, 4 restaurants, 

2 hotels, 2 lumber and coal yards, mill and vast elevators, 2 
shipping elevators, 1 printing office, 2 millinery establish- 
ments, 2 implement houses. 2 banks, 2 livery barns, 3 



406 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

churches, town hall and. opera house, tirst-class graded 
school and a good system of water works and tire depart- 
ment. They have a nice park in close proximity to the busi- 
ness. The state institutions are outside the corporate limits. 
They have the best arranged third-class post office in the 
state. The saloon had to go in 1905, but they have an am- 
ple supply of excellent water. 



MILFORD POST OFFICE 

Judge J. L. Davison opened a post office. 

The office at first was supplied by a Star route (with 
several stars in the route) from old Camden. Part of the 
time the judge sent his son, Marcenas, on horseback, and 
sometimes he sent one of the girls. JVIr. Davison held the 
office until the advent of Etherly and Doom, who opened a 
store in the embryo town, and the office with all its honors 
and emoluments were turned over to Mr. Etherly in 1868. 
By this time a regular star route was established from Lin- 
coln via Pleasant Dale to Milford and Beaver Crossing. 
This was a tri- weekly, and many times the weekly trials 
were too much for the driver and failed to connect. A little 
later a route was established from Crete to Columbus via 
Milford, Seward and Ulyses, which was continued for a 
number of years. J. H. Culver succeeded Mr. Etherly in 
1871. It has always been a conundrum why Cap. Culver 
'did not become a millionaire, running that post office in con- 
nection with the Blue Valley Record. During Culver's 
term, in 1871, the money order office was established. That 
was certainly a prominent event and one of great value to 
the people because all the banks of that day in this region 
were sand banks and not very reliable. 

April, 1873, Hon. Thos. A. Healy received his appoint- 
ment. The date of his first money order was April 30th. 
His wife, Mrs. Kate M. Healy, was his successor in 1876, 
when he was elected representative. S. D. I. Emerson suc- 
ceeded Mrs. Healy in 1879 and held the fort until 1885, 
John A. Cockron was appointed and succeeded by J. H. Cul- 
ver in December, 1889, and he run the office until the appoint- 
ment of Thos. Mustain, in 1894. Mr. Mustain died in office 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 407 

and the unexpired term was held by his widow in 1898, when 
the present incumbent, Hon. Tlios. A. Healy received his ap- 
pointment from President McKinley, July 31. Up to Janu- 
ary 1, 1904, two hundred and twenty thousand dollars of 
money orders had been sold during his administration. 

Post master's salary now amounts to twelve hundred 
dollars per annum. The office has just, at this writing, been 
placed in a new brick structure. This most elegant room 
has the reputation of being the best and most thoroughly 
equipped third-class office in Nebraska. By dint of persever- 
ence Mr. Healy secured the first two rural routes in Central 
Nebraska for Milford July 15, 1899. At that time the most 
westerly route was a trial route at Tecumseh. The first 
carriers of these routes were Chas. W. Punk on No. 1, 
and H. J. Matzke on No. 2. The third route was established 
November 1, 1900, and the fourth November 1, 1904, with 
Wm. Smiley as carrier. 

At first the patronage of the rural routes was very 
small, but has steadily grown from month to month until 
the business has become a very important factor in the busi- 
ness relations of the country. The rural routes have come 
to stay. The present management of the Milford office is 
so entirely satisfactory that we could heartily wish that Mr. 
Healy could remain at the head of it until his salary would 
reach five thousand dollars per year and then enjoy it a good 
long term. 



MILFORD MILLS 

J. L. Davison, one of the very first settlers of Seward 
county, came to Salt Creek, (the Lord only knows when) 
and to old Camden ranch in 1862, where he learned most 
thoroughly the ways of the "wild and wooly West" as a 
ranchman. He was a venturesome and restless pioneer that 
was ever on the lookout for a new enterprise. In the spring 
1864, while exploring the upper Blue Valley, found a rocky 
ford at a point below the present mill. John Cadman 
and William Fields of Lancaster county had determined to 
open a new road for freight and general traffic across the 
plains to be known as the steam wagon road, which road 



408 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

left the old Camden trail about twenty miles east of Salt 
Creek and crossed that stream at Yankee Hill (near the in- 
sane hospital) and to intercept the old trail just east of Walnut 
Creek. It became the privilep^e of Mr. Davison to find a 
suitable crossing (by ford) of the Blue and he was quick to 
see just where to locate. He, with indomitable perse- 
verence, went far out into the prairie to the westward and 
interviewed train masters and induced them to try the new 
trail and soon secured enough travel to break the road, and 
it was not long until thousands of immigrants and emigrants 
were winding their way over the steam wagon i-oad. But 
now about the steam wagon? Well some ingenious fellow 
had gotten the idea that has led up to the present traction 
engine and he made an engine which he thought could be 
made successful on the Plains and had determined to run it 
over this trail. It succeeded in getting out about three 
miles west of Nebraska City in the summer of 1865, but it 
failed, got tired, and in that summer we saw it resting by 
the road side. The road was a perfect success, however, if 
the wagon was a failure. 

The travel increased so that Mr. Davison determined in 
the winter of 1865 to build a bridge and wdth a crew of 
hardy frontiersmen, he scored, hewed and hauled timber 
from every section (thirty-seven) on the river up and down 
for ten miles or more, and built a strong substantial bridge 
(the first on the river north of old Camden bridge at the 
forks). 

In the spring of 1866 many new settlers came and among 
them was William Reed, of Weeping Water Falls, who 
owned a litte mill. The people of that aristocratic commu- 
nity wanted a larger one so Uncle Billy formed a partner- 
ship with Mr. Davison, and they were a well matched and 
strong team and they moved the mill and placed it by the 
ford, and thus we have Milford. Most happy were the peo- 
ple of that part of the valley, that there was a mill by the 
ford. 

The mill wheels turned in due time and many were the 
glad hearts that secured the grinding of a sack of corn. 
That grand little old mill was not quite so large, neither 
was so filled with the latest improved machinery as the pres- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 409 

ent great structure, but, somehow, we can't help but think 
that the biscuit and Johnny cake coming from the little mill 
were sweeter and better than any of the present. Perhaps 
a ten mile drive through a blizzard for a sack of meal made 
the cake sweeter. Well, the old mill performed duty well 
and truly until the fire fiend came and destroyed it in 1881. 

Some time during the early days of the mill Henry Wor- 
tendyke held an interest in the plant and also W. J. Thomp- 
son was interested for a time; when later J. L. Davison 
bought the entire plant. In 1877 J. H. Culver bought an 
interest and in 1879 F. S. Johnson and H. D. Perry and Mr. 
Johnson's brother bought an interest. This partnership 
continued but a short time. F. S. Johnson & Co. bought the 
property in 1880 entire, and built the present great mill in 
1882 and 1883 and soon thereafter, the company built the 
capacious warehouses with holding capacity of two thous- 
and barrels of finished product besides one hundred thous- 
and bushels of grain. The machinery is run by a combina- 
tion of water and steam power of one hundi-ed and twenty- 
five horses. The present capacity is five hundred barrels of 
meal and one hundred thousand pounds of feed stuffs every 
twenty-four hours. 

The mill was run as a combined plant, manufacturing 
flour, meal and corn products up to 1900, when the flouring 
machinery was all taken out and replaced with the most ap- 
proved machinery to manufacture corn products. The .mill 
is a massive brick structure five stories in height and all 
filled with a labyrinth of machinery that is bewildering to a 
novice. 



MILFORD NEWSPAPERS 

From the time that the Record ceased to exist, in April, 
1873, which able and valuable paper has already been fully 
noticed, Milford had no paper until February, 1882, when 
the Seward County Democrat, a seven-column folio, was is- 
sued by Alexander Brothers. It was true to its name, a 
straight-out democrat paper, and had a successful business 
for two years, when its proprietors sold it out to Prof. Geo. 
F, Burkett, of Michigan. The professor changed its nam© 



410 HISTORY OF riEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

to that of Milford Ozone, and its political career thencefor- 
ward was republican. A few months later, the editor having 
been elected principal of the Milford high school took in as 
partner an erratic individual by the name of Horace Boyle, 
who played a brief engagement of three months, when his 
interest was purchased by H. C. Hensel, of Omaha. An 
amicable partnership of two months ensued, when Prof. 
Burkett's interest was purchased, and then the name was 
changed to that of Milford Nebraskan. Its politics remained 
republican. Mr. Hensel continued the publication for some 
years. L. O. Howard bought the plant in 1900 and has con- 
ducted it up to this time. 



PLEASANT DALE SCHOOL, DISTRICT 21 

BY F. H. BLACKER 

Was organized in 1870, by Geo. B. France, County Su- 
perintendent. The district comprised twenty sections of 
land in the northeast corner of "I" precinct. April 9th a 
school meeting was held at the house of M. Steinhilber and 
J. T. Priest was elected moderator, W. A. Higgins treas- 
urer and J. A. Raymer director. The first school was taught 
by J. Latler in a soddie built on Steven Brown's homestead. 
In 1873, a frame house was built on section 26, and May H. 
Frisbee taught two terms at $25 per month. Fifteen pujDils 
made up the school. The next term w^as taught by Miss 
Mary E. Skorey with nineteen scholars. 

In 1890 the present two story frame building was erected 
in the village of Pleasant Dale, the district having been di- 
vided and W. C. Dunten was elected director. The first 
eighth grade class to graduate took their degree in 1899. It 
took its place in the ranks of the high schools in 1901 and 
1902, through the generous help of citizens who raised by 
subscription $250, as the 25 mill limit of tax was insufficient 
to carry on the school. F. H. Blacker was elected principal 
with a salary of $50 per month, which was later raised to 
$60 per month, with Miss Mable Hensen as assistant at $40 
per month. At the time Henry Oxley, S. Vanandel and E. 
J. Newton were the school board. The enrollment was 
about ninety for the years 1902-1903. The next year the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 411 

term was made nine months. Miss Lulu Mitchel was in 
charge of the lower rooms. Total enrollment was HK. The 
school year opened September 5, 1904, and closed May 19, 
1905. Present board are John Mitchell, E. J. Newton and 
S. Vanandel. 

The commencement exercises were held in the M. E. 
church. Class sermon was preached by Rev. H. G. Clay- 
comb. Blanch Vanandel, Grace Dunten and May Best grad- 
uated in the tenth grade. The class motto "Upward and On- 
ward." Guy Pool has the honor of a grand record. Four 
terms without a tardy or absent mark. The district is free 
from debt with a present valuation amply sufficient so that 
eight mills levy furnishes plenty of funds. 



UTICA 

A beautiful bustling village of near six hundred people 
is situated on the Burlington rail road near the west line of 
Seward county and was founded in LS77. It- is surrounded 
by excellent farms, and has from the beginning enjoyed a 
good trade. It is well built with many substantial business 
houses. Some very good two-story bricks. There are a 
host of cozy cottages. The stocks of merchandise in every 
line are large and has the appearance of thrift and enter- 
prise. The shipping facilities seem to be adequate as there 
is a freight train in sight nearly every hour, day or night. 

They maintain an excellent high school and have four 
good churches. The fraternal orders seem to have a strong 
hold and we note a fraternal hall of vast proportion. Along 
the streets we count about forty business houses of various 
kinds, representing all classes of business of our westei-n 
towns. It is a noticeable feature that the village has fairly 
awakened upon the sidewalk question and the village has 
its complements of excellent brick walks. There are num- 
erous buildings in the course of erection among which we 
note a very extensive grain elevator being erected by Fritz 
Beckard . 

Utica has many real live men that mean to keep Utica 
to the front, but there are some clogs in the wheel. Some 
of her most wealthy citizens that have made their money off 
the people are more of a hindrance than a help. 



412 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

UTICA POSTOFFICE 

Established in the fall of 1H77 with T. E. Standard as 
post master. Money order office was established soon after- 
wards. The next post master was Rev. C. E. Phinney, suc- 
ceeded by H. M. Colman and he was succeeded by Rev. C. E. 
Phinney in 1880. In 1885 Wm. Nevins was appointed and 
in 1889 R. C. Ragan held it one year when Hon. G. A. Der- 
by had it and was followed by D. S. Hardin; he was suc- 
ceeded by Geo. Debolt, then Charles Greenwood was ap- 
pointed and died in office in 1899, when the present efficient 
incumbent, J. H. Casler was appointed December 15, 1899. 
He is now enjoying his second term. 

Busines of the office for 1904, $1494.68; post office order 
business for 1904, $11,094.21. The office is almost ready to 
enter the third class. There is one rurul route. 



BEE 

On the Northwestern railway, eight miles northeast of 
Seward, is a neat little village well situated in the midst of 
a splendid farming community and commands the grain and 
stock trade from quite an extensive area reaching well into 
Butler county on the north. The village has two hundred 
and thirty inhabitants. It has two capacious, elevators, a 
large lumber yard, two general stores, two grocery and con- 
fectionary stores, a bank, good hotel, two churches, a sub- 
stantial graded school, with a commodious building. The 
Modern Woodmen have a large hall, the second story of the 
only brick block in the town. 

The village was laid out in the fall of 1887, when the 
railroad was completed. Michael Dunigan was the founder. 
His daughter, Minnie, was the first postmistress and held the 
I)lace until 1889, when the old veteran pioneer, E. H. Noxon, 
received the appointment at the hands of President Harri- 
son's Postmaster General and he has held the fort now six- 
teen years to the satisfaction of the people. We could not 
learn just when the money order office was established. The 
money orders sold and paid amounts from six to eight hun- 
dred dollars per month. One rural route runs out of Bee, 
with a mileage of twenty-eight miles, From the gentlemanly 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 413 

agent of the railroad company, we are able to give the 
number of cars of freight received and sent out during the 
year 1904. The showing of shipments of grain and stock 
shows up well. The incoming freight was, coal, 15 cars; 
lumber, 13; cement and brick, 5; imigrant cars, 2; stock 7: 
total in car lots, 40 cars. Cars shipped out, grain 184; stock, 
72; miscellaneous, 33; total, 289 cars. Stuff shipped as lo- 
cal freight not noted. 

The village is a nice home place only a few minutes 
ride from the city. 



THE GERMANTOWN CREAMERY 

Was incorporated, Api-il 9, 1892, with a capital stock of 
five thousand dollars. There were issued one thousand 
shares of five dollars each, one half the amount was paid in 
before business was commenced. May 1, 1892. First direc- 
tors were E. M. Olney, J. A. Ohlwiler, Henry Hans, Jr., and 
M. B. Palmer. Louis Meyers was first secretary and Cyrus 
Fetterman first treasurer. The articles of incorporation 
provided for the manufacture of dairy products and handling 
and feeding of live stock. The stockholders consisted of 
sixteen citizens. From the start the business has proved 
profitable to both stockholders and the community. They 
immediately erected a plant and put in all the necessary ap- 
pliances for the manufacture of butter and under the excel- 
lent business management of W. W. Higman, the manager 
for years, the creamery took high rank and the products 
found a ready market at prices very satisfactory. The com- 
pany have kept pace with the times and have added new ma- 
chinery as the wants of the institution demanded and at this 
time the plant is a most thoroughly equipped factory with all 
modern machinery. They receive milk from the farmer and 
return him the skimmed milk and buttermilk, with a good 
paying price for the butter fat of the milk. 

The products of tiie concern for the year 1903, footed up 
to the neat sum of twenty-nine thousand eight hundred and 
seventy-one dollars. It is an important factor as a wealth 
producer in the community round about Germantown. Pres- 
ent board of directors, Hon. Henry Beckman president, John 



414 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 

A. Oliwiler, Henry Hans, Jr., John Sunderman and Wm. 
Shultz; August Beckman, treasurer; G. L. Petri, manager; 
Ottoe Smith, butter maker. 



GERMANTOWN POST-OFFICE 

Germantown established in March 1873. John Wester- 
hoff first postmaster, salary twelve dollars a year. The 
prominent citizens that have been in turn postmasters, 
are Benj. Walker, Charles Petterman, Charles Hans and L. 
S. Callaghan. The present incumbent has held the position 
for eight years. The office is fourth class in rank. 



TAMORA POST-OFFICE 

In the ancient days, nobody can tell just when, but it 
was in the Seventies, a country post office was established 
and named Lafayette and was presided over by Mr. Welden. 
Of this little office we can learn but very little, but it was 
supplied — semi-occasionally- -a star route supplied with a 
buck- board and one horse. 

The town was located shortly after the rail road was ex- 
tended west from Seward and P. G. Tyler was the first post- 
master of the town in about 1H80. Mr. A. Wolf succeeded 
him and he was followed by Henry Cross in 1883, the first 
date obtainable. We find W. W. Rogers held the position 
in 1884. J. A. Norin succeeded him -January 1, 1886, was 
appointed and held the place until October 1, 1887, when R. 
E. Marshall was appointed and he was followed by Chas. 
Emerson in 1889. R. E. Marshall was again appointed in 
1893 and held the fort until January 1, 1898, when the pres- 
ent incumbent, C. D. Alexander, was appointed. 

Money order office was established in 1886. It is a 
fourth class office and up to the present there are no rural 
routes eminating from Tamora. 



GROVER POSTOFHCE 

Just by the Mil ford station was established in 1884, and 
the money order office in 1900. J. J. Briggs was the first 
postmaster aud was succeeded by Mrs. E. C. Funk, who has 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



415 



now held the place eighteen years. This post office is a pe- 
culiar exception to the rule, it being located only about 
half a mile from the Milford post office; but it seems to hold 
its footing pretty well and more than pays the expenses of 
the same, and is quite an accommodation to the people near 
the depot and the settlement to the eastward. 



When Dr. Converse was superintendent of the old Mid- 
land Pacific a little incident occurred of which Hon. Henry 
Beckman, of east "H" township, tells. In 1874, when the 
rail road was in its infancy and there were few trains 
and less business, Mr. Beckman and some of his neiglibors 
had a lot of wheat to market and as stations were few and 
far between they made arrangements with the superinten- 
dent to leave a car from the train going to Seward on the 
main track. While the train was going to Seward and back 
the men doubled teams and loaded the car, and when the 
train came back the engine pushed it to Lincoln. 

At that time any citizen wishing to board a train could 
flag it and the accommodating conductor would stop the train 
and take on the passenger. These were accommodating trains 
sure enough. 




THE FIRST ENGINE TO PRESS THE SOIL OF ILLINOIS IN 1848 

In October, 1849, the author had his first "ride on a rail" 
hauled by this primitive engine. There was only twenty-one 
miles of old fashioned strap rail leading from the foot of Kin- 
sey street, Chicago. We were landed in a desert prairie 
west of Des Plains river where an old stage took us in. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
CHURCHES OF THE COUNTY 



It will be noticed that some of the churches are not noticed. It is 
not because of our sectarian sentiments but because the church officers 
have been careless and the data was not furnished. 

SEVENTH DAY ADVENT CHURCH 
Was organized May 23, 1875, near RuVjy station and was named 
Seward church. Local elder was M. Hackvvorth ; first deacon, Alex 
Hackworth ; first secretary, Ella L. Hackworth. Other organizing 
members were Francis and Drucilla Morton, Martha and Alice Rider, 
Rebacca Hackvvorth, Abiatha Kennison and Anginette Morgan. 

In 1902 they built a neat and substantial house of worship in the 
west part of Seward. Membership at jjresent is about thirty. They 
hold regular services every Saturday. Many changes have occurred 
through the years, death has called many home, others have moved to 
other fields. Yet the church grows and prospers. 

AMISH MENNONITES 

A small colony of these people settled two miles west of Milford, 
April 3, 1873. Eight families constituted the first settlement. Their 
first communion was held October, 187;"), by Rev. Christian Ruff of Mc- 
Lean county, Illinois, who was sent by the conference held in Illinois 
that year. Membership at that time was eleven. In the spring of 
187(5, Rev. Paul P. Hershberger came from Henry county. Iowa, and 
that spring a church was organized with twenty-three members, and 
Rev. Hershberger became pastor for the .season. Late that fall com- 
munion was held by Rev. Nafziger and Rev. Zoder from Woodford 
county, Illinois. Three converts were baptized on this occasion. In 
the spring of 1877, Rev, D. C. Miller, of Howard county, Indiana, vis- 
ited the church and held communion when two new members were re- 
ceived into the communion. 

Rev. Hershberger conducted services until the spring of 1878 when 
Rev. Joseph Cxarsho came who assisted Rev. Hershberger and that 
season the church was built. It is situated in Section 9 in "O" pre 
cinct. At that time the membership was fiftj^-five. Rev. Samuel 
Zoder conducted the first service in the new church. In the fall, 
Bishop Joseph Schezel bought a home with us. He held communion 
and baptized five persons. He took up his residence here in the spring 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 417 

of 1879, and has been pastor to the present time. We have enlarged the 
church and it is now 28x56 feet. 

This peculiar sect of Protestant people had its origin in Zurick, 
Switzerland, in the early part of the 16th century. They are baptists. 
Meno Simmons was a chief exponent of their peculiar doctrines al- 
though not the originator. Within the communities evangelical life 
means separation from the world and this law forbids marriage outside 
the church. They refuse to take an oath or to use the sword. They 
were content to live as strangers upon the earth. The pursuit of holi- 
ness is the chief end of their lives. In all parts of Europe they were 
ostracised and persecuted in the early days. Large numbers under a 
peculiar guarantee took up their abode in western Russia but under 
later sovereigns these guarantees were withdrawn and large numbers 
migrated to America and settled in Pennsylvania. They do not recog- 
nize a salaried ministry. For many years they eschewed the use of 
buttons and the use of the razor. Their settlement in Russia l)egan 
under Empress Catharine in 1783. They now number near two hundred 
thousand in the United States and Canada. Their oldest settlement in 
this country was founded in 1683, at Germantown, Pennsylvania. 
These people are noted for sobriety, industry and frugality. They are 
almost universally prosperous and it can truthfully be said that in 
their Seward county community, they own one of the finest blocks of 
farms in the entire west. Their houses, barns and orchards are beauti- 
ful beyond description. They maintain no parocial schools but take a 
great interest in the public schools. School District No. 73, in the 
midst of their settlement is the largest in the county outside of the 
principal villages, having 124 scholars. 

They are wonderfully loyal people to their church and it is a sight to 
behold the gathering of the people on Sabbath mornings, as they come 
in droves from every quarter to worship. One feature worthy of notice 
and commendation is the care they take of their teams. They have 
long rows of sheds to shelter their teams while they are at worship. 
The congregation, the largest in the county, has now outgrown their 
ciiurch edifice and a much larger one is to be erected during the season 
of 1905. Present membership about four hundred. 

CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
By B. F. Thompson. 
Of Beaver Crossing was organized in about 1871. A young gradu- 
ate from Andover Seminary by the name of Smith (other name un- 
known) came and gathered together such of the scattered settlers as 
were religiously inclined and organized a church with the following 
named members : ]Mr. and Mrs. E. Taylor, Wm. Livesly and wife, Al- 
fred Livesly, Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Pinkerton, Mr. and Mrs. W. J. 
Thompson, Mrs. Sarah Foster, Mrs. Mary E. Nichols. The oragniza- 
tion continued about ten years. They worshiped in the school house. 
Ministers in charge so far as is possible to learn were : Rev. Fred 



418 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Alley, Rev. H. A. French, Rev. Clark, Rev. Winslow, Rev. L. E. 
Benton, Rev. Warren Cockran, Rev. Moore and Rev. Chase. At one 
time the church was in a flourishing condition and had a good influence 
over the community but in 1881, or about that time, other churches oc- 
cupied the field and the Congregationalists gave way, after breaking 
the ground and preparing the way. 

The first Sunday School was organized as a "Union" Sunday School 
in the home of Daniel Milspaw during the summer of 1869. Mrs. 
Mary E. Nichols was superintendent. This was before the advent of 
the International lessons and thfe lesson was assigned weeklj' in ad- 
vance, generallv requiring upon the part of the juvenile members, the 
committing to memory of a chapter from the Testament or one of the 
Psalms. The hymns used the first year were generally selected from 
the Pocket Edition of the M. E. Hymnal. The next summer the 
school was re-organized in our new school house, a new set of hymn- 
books. The "Happy Voices" were purchased. The membership greatly 
increased. From this time there was almost always preaching service 
in connection with the Sunday School. Well filled w^agon loads of both 
young and old coming from their newly located homes for miles around. 

EMANUEL CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
Was organized April 19, 1891, with sixteen members, as follows: V. 
Minor, J. Westerhoff, John Westerhoff, C. E. Hans, J. Koehler, P. Kil- 
zer, F. W. Westerhoff, Henry Hans, Sr., H. Hans, Jr., P. Zillig, F.Witt, 
N. Black, John Kilzer and Wm. Westerhoff. First deacons : John Kil- 
zer and Henry Hans, Sr. Pastor Rev. H. J. Neubaur. Present mem- 
bership sixty. Second Pastor, Rev. Fred Worth, eight years. Third 
Pastor, Rev. C. Rickbert, two years. Fourth Pastor, Rev. B. Hoppel, 
one year. Fifth Pastor, Rev. G. L. Brakemager in charge since Jan- 
uary 4, 1904. The congregation have a very creditable house of wor- 
ship, a frame structure. 

SEWARD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
Was organized May 9, 1887, with thirty-five members, mostly those 
were connected with the Presbyterian Chui'ch and had withdrawn. The 
first officers were : Rev. A. M. Darly, Pastor ; J. C. Bradley and A. 
Bemis, deacons; F. H. McLain, clerk; S. R. Douglas, treasurer; trus- 
tees, S. R. Douglas, Edmund Mclntyre, L. R. Cotrell, Henry Morris 
and R. P. Anderson. Soon thereafter the congregation built a fine two 
story brick church edifice with a belfry, which at the time was the 
best church edifice in the county. We are indebted to Rev. F. W. 
Leavitt, the present pastor for the following historical facts. 

The second minister, Rev. J. A. Dobson, died here during his 
term of service in September, 1890. Revs. George Ray, G. B. Carlisle, 
T. W. C. Cheesman, Paul C. Burhans successively filled the pastoi'al 
oftice. The present incumbent, Frederick W. Leavitt, began his labors, 
July 15, 19U3. The membership now stands at seventy-five and some 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 419 

sixty families look to this church for pastoral services. Auxiliary to 
the chvirch are a Sunday School, Young People's Society of Christian 
Endeavor, Boy's Club and Ladies' Association. During the year 1904, 
the organization expended |1500 for home expenses and benevolences. 
The official board at present is constituted as follows : Deacons, Dr. 

D. D. Potter, Alfred Hiller, W. H Moore; trustees, Dr. J. T. Potter, 
S. R. Douglas, W. H. Moore, R. P. Anderson, F. C. Williams; clerk, 

E. H. Koch ; treasurer, Alfred Hiller. Sunday School superintendent, 
Mrs. M. D. Carey; Y. P. S. C. E. president. Miss Minnie Cole; Ladies 
Association president, Mrs. D. D. Potter. 

MILFORD CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
Was organized, April 10, 1869, with the following members, viz : 
William H. Reed, Patrick Davidson, A. J. Waterman, Lee H. Smiley, 
Nancy C. Reed, Sophia David.son, Elizabeth J. Waterman, Mary J. 
Smiley, Ester Smiley, Sallie M. Smith, Marion Hooker and Sophia D. 
Hooker. The first deacons were A. J. Waterman and Patrick David- 
son. Lee H. Smiley was first clerk. During the first year nine new 
members were received. In 1870 ten were received and two removed 
by death. In 1891, four were dismissed. In 1872 five were received 
and two dismissed. In 1873, eleven were received and four dismissed. 
Up to January 1, 1875, fifty seven had been placed on the roll of mem- 
bership and sixteen dismissed. Rev. T. N. Skinner was fii'st pastor 
and continued till February, 1872. May, 1872, Rev. H. A. French 
became pastor. 

At first the church was without rules of government except such as 
were found in the Eclesiastical Society of the church. January, 1870, 
it adopted a code of laws. In 1873, a constitution was formed and in 
1874, it revised its polity and became incorporate. The first year 1869, 
a trame church edifice 24x36 was erected at a cost of |1600, on lots one 
and two on block one, Milford. Twelve hundred dollars were paid by 
citizens and |400, from the church building fund. Rev. S. G. Lamb 
was pastor from 1884 to 1888. Rev. Geo. Bisco to 1890. Rev. R. M. Tra- 
verse from 1892 to 1895. Rev. G. A. Monroe from 1895 to 1900. Rev. 
John Jeffreys came March 1, 1901, and remained one year. Rev. G. R. 
Martin came February, 1903, and remained to June 1, 1904, when Rev. 
Francis Wrigley took the pastorate and is with the church at present. 
The present membership is seventy-six. A flourishing Sabbath School 
is maintained. Mrs. M. M. Salladin has been their very efficient 
clerk for many years. In 1884 the present beautiful church was erected 
at a cost of $3500. The building is of red brick and is a very creditable 
and substantial edifice. 

CATHOLIC CHURCHES 
Of Seward county and immediate vicinity. About the year 1876, a 
settlement of twelve Catholic families from Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, 
New York, Connecticut and Wisconsin had located near Salem school 



420 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



house in the northern part of Seward count}'. This little settlement 
comprised the following families, John McGowen, Thos. McGowen, 
John Ward, Michael Gray, Thos. Reynolds, John Reynolds, Daniel 
Driscol, Daniel Kennedy, Jacob Scherseberger, Thos. Grant, Adolphus 
Mantry,John McGinnis and Mrs. Wills. A Lincoln Priest, Rev. Father 




Seward Catholic Church 

Smith began visiting the settlement in 1875 and gathered the little 
flock together in private homes for religious worship. He continued 
his ministrations for some time. In 1873 and 1874, several Catholic 
families had found homes at Seward and vicinity. Among these pio- 
neers may be mentioned Anthony Carey, Richard Conway, VVm. Ma- 
roney, Patrick Coneley, John Kribeler, August Guthman, James Fallon 
and John Zim merer. Rev. Father Smith also looked after their spirit- 
ual welfare and gathered the little flock together in private houses for 
a time and later they held services in the old court house. In 1879, 
the congregation had grown somewhat and it was determined to erect a 
house of worship and a little frame edifice was built which in later 
years has been reconstructed into the present neat and beautiful edifice 
that is shown in the above cut. It is well to note that the member- 
ship at the Salem school house united with the Sevpard congregation 
and from this time forward a Priest was sent to reside among them at 
Seward. Rev. Father O'Brien was the first regular pastor. He was 
succeeded by Rev. Father Wallace and he by Rev. Father Lysaught. 
In 1881, the Salem settlement had so increased that they thought it 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 421 

wise to make a change and at a meeting of the members of that locality 
it was determined to erect a place of worship that would be more con- 
venient and better serve their wants. This meeting was held in the 
school house. Jacob Schneberger proposed to donate land but as the 
A. N. railroad had been completed to Ulysses, it caused a material 
change. The Rt. Rev. James O Conor was Vicar Apostalic and in 1885 




Rev. Wm. Murphy, Pastor Catholic Church 

became Bishop of Omaha and had jurisdiction over the churches of Ne- 
braska and Wyoming. He determined that the church should be built 
near a railroad station. So the congregation determined to erect the 
church edifice at Ulysses. A neat building for the present needs was 
erected in 1881, but the congregation soon outgrew the building and in 
1892, the present commodious structure was erected. This congrega- 
tion has been up to the present writing served by the resident Priest of 
Seward. 

While the Ulysses church is in another county its membership is 



422 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

largely made up of citizens of Seward county, and are justly entitled 
to proper notice in tiiese pages, as the birth place of the church was 
within our borders. In about the year 1876, a few Catholic families 
had settled in the vicinity of Utica and were visited at irregular per- 
iods by the Seward pastor. A small chur(!h was soon built which the 
congregation is using at the present. Recently a church was organized 
at Beaver Crossing and a church edifice and parsonage were built. 
Some years ago some fifteen families had settled at and near Milford 
and were attended by the Seward Priest, but they have never erected a 
church and the membership have scattered. About ten or twelve years 
ago a wealthy lady died leaving a bequest in her will for the erection 
of a church edifice in Milford but by some means the bequest was di- 
verted to other purposes. The Seward chui'ch owns a beautiful and 
valuable property with a nice church edifice and parsonage. Rev. 
Father Wm. Murph)' has been the popular and efhcient pastor for years. 

EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA 

Away down just one mile north from the south line of the county 
in section 26, town nine, range two east, stands a beautiful church and 
parsonage. The church was dedicated August 18, 1891. It cost |1362. 

The congregation was first known as Pleasant View class and was 
organized as an attache of the Beaver Crossing church, in 1889. The 
class was organized with forty-six members. The first pastor was S. 
H. Pontiers. In 1891, the church was recognized by the conference and 
set upon its own footing. The jjresent membership is made up of 
fourty-four families. 

Pastors that thus far led the flock are as follows: Rev. J. P. Ash, 
Rev. S. H. Pontius, Rev. A. H. Zilmer, Rev. I. A. Young, Rev. U. S. 
Crane, Rev. E. H. Kiefer, Rev. J. A. Adams, Rev. H. E. Shumacher 
and Rev. G. B Bancroft. Present board of trustees are R. B. Parks, 
J. C. Boye, A. Conell, A. J. Miller and J. N. Pate. 

The church maintains a flourishing Sabbath school, including offi- 
cers, teachers and scholars, it numbers fifty-one. Its first superinten- 
dent was A. J. Miller. He was succeeded by J. C. Boye. Arthur Mc- 
Cracken is now superintendent. The church is a well built structure 
and is accompanied by a neat parsonage occupying a beautiful tract of 
ground surrounded by a splendid lot of well improved farms. 

GERMAN EVANGELICAL FRIEDEN'S CHURCH AT SEWARD 
This is a branch of the German protestant church. The church at 
Seward was organized September 22, 1878, by Rev. Christian Bek, with 
the following members, John Schmidt, Geo. Goetz, Mathias Schmidt, 
Heinrich Meinberg and Carl Maier. Soon thereafter the congregation 
bought a (juarter block where the church edifice now stands and built a 
neat little church which is now used for the parocial school. In 1885 
they built the parsonage at a cost of |1000. They established a flour- 
ishing Sibbjith school aad also an elementary day school and prepara- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 423 

tion for confirmation is maintained. The charities consist of general 
church work, supporting the pastor. Home and Foreign Missionary 
work Seminaries, Orphan homes and other benevolent institutions. 

Pastors in their order have been Rev. C. Bek from 1878 to 1881, 
Rev. J. P. Welch from 1881 to 1883. Jiev. P. Speidel from 1884, June 
1st to 1895, eleven years. Rev. Carl Snider from 1896 to 1899. Rev. C. 
H. Hanck from 1899 to 1901, when the present incumbent A. Woth be- 
came pastor. The new church edifice was built nnder the pastorate of 
Rev. Speidel in 1888, at a cost of 12700, and with a seating capacity of 
about 400. It is a very creditable frame building, with a fine belfry. 
Present membership is forty-eight families. 

The Sabbath school has an enrollment of fifty. The parocial school 
has thirty-five pupils. The parsonage is neat and commodious . The 
congregation is free from debt. A Ladies Aid Society with thirty-six 
active members does much charitable work. Present church officers are 
V. Rocker, secretary ; Henri Busche, treasurer, and trustees W. M. Bar- 
thold, G. Tempel, H. Weinberg and John Goebel The church is in a 
very prosperous condition. 

Church at Goehner was organized by Rev. A. Woth in 1903. They 
have a membership of thirty families and a Sabbath school of fifty- 
eight scholars and a parocial school in summer of forty-seven pupils. 
They built a neat frame church in 1903, at a cost of $2500 with a seat- 
ing capacity of about 400. Their ofticers are : Geo. Bauer, secretary; 
F. Shultz, treasurer, and H. Bluhm, Wm. Vogt, F. Imig and Chan. 
Gembler, trustees. The church is served at present by the Seward pas- 
tor. Rev. Woth. These churches belong to the German Evangelical 
Synod of North America. 

MILFORD EMANUEL EVANGELICAL ASSOCIATION 
Was organized, September 13, 1903. Their first church was built 
in 1880 but moved to the present site in 1903 and greatly enlarged. The 
beautiful frame structure is 3')x40 with a nice belfry and cost about 
$2500. It is by odds the finest church edifice in Milford. It is heated 
by a furnace. They have forty-five communicants. They have a flour- 
ishing Sabbath school. The organizing members were sixteen. The 
denomination also has a neat and prosperous church northeast of Mil- 
ford. The present pastor is Rev. F. W. Schulzky. 

SEWARD EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH 

Was organized at Seward, December 10, 1877, by Rev. Father Karl 
T. Gruber. Its first trustees were Herman Diers, Oscar E. Bernecker 
and Chas. Kroeger. Among the first members were J. F. Goehner, 
Wm. Shultz, H. Kimmel, Herman Bernecker, Mr. Kortge and Grand- 
father Bernecker and their families. Other names connected with the 
organization are lost to us. A little frame church edifice was erected 
in 1879 and was dedicated November 9th. Father Gruber served as 
pastor of the little flock up to 1880, when, in 1881 Rev. C. Bode took the 



1 



424 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



pastorate and served for a time and was succeeded by Rev F. Koenig, 
who served the church till 1891, when Rev. A. Miller held the pastorate 
till 1895, when the present incumbent was called, Rev. C. H. Becker. 
In 1888, a very creditable parsonage was erected. 

The present ele-gant house of worship was erected in 1893. The 
old edifice has been used since that time exclusively for school purposes 
but two years ago, another frame school building was erected at rear of 
the church and two schools are maintained with an attendance of 
eighty pupils where both English and German are taught. The new 




Seward Lutheran Church 

church has a seating capacity of five hundred and cost about thirty- 
eieht hundred dollars. The present number of communicants is threo 
hundred and fifty besides the unconfirmed children. 

In 1904, the congregation procured and placed in the church an 
elegant i)ipe organ at a cost of $l(iO(). The congregation has grown to 
the extent that a large addition is now in contemplation for the near 
future. The present trustees are Herman Diers, .1. F. Groehner and H. 
Gerkenmeyer. 'Deacons are O. E. Bernecker and Peter Goehner. The 
church school board are Henry Krueger and Paul Beck. The pastor is 
chairman of these boards. The present teachers are E. F. Rolf and 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 425 

Louis Rewinkel, both graduates of the Adison normal school of Illinois. 
The teachers lead the church choir and play the organ. 

GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, LINCOLN CREEK 
The German Evangelical Lutheran Immanuel congregation on 
Lincoln Creek, Seward county, Nebraska. This congregation was or- 
ganized in the fall of 1878 by the following members: John Suhr, Carl 
Heitman, Fred Suhr, Joeachin Gierhou, Dietrich Erks, Eilers Erks and 
Carl Gierhan. Four of these gentlemen still live : Carl Heitmann, 
Fred Suhr, Eilers Erks and Carl Gierhou. The first officers of the 
congregation, who were, however, not elected in the first meeting, 
were: John Suhr, Carl Heitmann and Henry Neujhr, trustees; Albert 
Klebe, secretary ; Carl Heitmann, treasurer. In the fall of 1874 the 
congregation bought ten acres of railroad land in "D" town, five miles 
north of Utica.and built their first church out of sod 16x20 ft. In 1877, 
the first frame church, 20x30 ft. , was built. This structure, enlarged 
and renovated, is still in use as a parochial school of the congregation. 
The present church building, 32x48, steeple 14x14, 75ft. high, bearing a 
2100-lb. bell-metal bell, was erected in 1887. In 1902 the congregation 
bought five acres more of land and erected a teacher's dwelling, they 
having called Mr. H. Beels as teacher of their parochial school. Three 
resident ministers have served the congregation as pastors: Rev. G. 
Gruber, Rev. H. Bohl and Rev. M. Zagel, the last named being in 
charge of the congregation for the last fourteen years. The congrega- 
tion today has a membership of (54 voting members and 445 souls. The 
present officers are: Carl Heitmann, Fred Suhr and Dietrich Dey, elders; 
William Pozehl, Fr. Meinke and Fred Fischer, trustees; D. C. Martens, 
treasurer ; Gustave Irmer, secretary. 

GERMAN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH 
The German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation at east line of 
"H" precinct was organized in November, 1872, by the following per- 
sons: Johann Heinrich Beckmanh, Sr. , H. Friedrich Beckmann, Hein- 
lich Beckmann, Fritz Beckmann, Johann Beckmann, Heinrich Brune, 
Karl Koch, Heinrich Niebuhr, Fritz Gahle, Friedrich Sieck, August 
Sieck, Ernst Sieck, Heinbrich Sieck, Friedrich Lange, Sr. , Heinrich 
Lange, and Hermann Goecke. 

During the summer of 1872, a district school house was built on the 
northeast quartei' of .section 14-11-4, in which Rev. Theo. Gruber, pas- 
tor of the Middle creek congregation, Seward county, Nebraska, preached 
every third Sunday, if possible. In September, 1881, Rev. Friedrich 
Koenig accepted a call as pastor of the congregation and remained until 
18»4, when he followed a call to Seward and vvas succeeded by the pre- 
sent minister. Rev. W. Brakhage. In 1884, a church was built. This 
building (30x50 ft. ) cost about |2100 not including the work done gratis 
by the members of the congregation. The church as well as the par- 
sonage, costing about |800, stands just across the line in Lancaster 



426 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

county. The voting membership at the present time is 49 ; total mem- 
bership 329. 

The members of this congregation, like all the congregations of the 
Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other states, consider it their 
duty to not only educate their children in the secular branches of know- 
ledge but also to give them a thorough instruction in the great truth 
and undefiled doctrines of Christianity pertaining to the salvation of 
ther immortal soul and for this reason have built and are maintaining 
a congregational school with a special teacher in charge. The present 
teacher, Jos Dietrich, is well qualified to teach English as vpell as 
German. He lives a few hundred yards west of the church, in Seward 
county. The membership are citizens of both Seward and Lancaster 
counties. 

OLD STONE CHURCH 

The old Stone church was one of the oldest land marks of Seward 
county, being erected in 1872. It was one of the first church edifices 
ever built in the county and is deserving of more notice than our space 
will allow. It was a most substantial stone structure with a seating 
capacity of about two hundred and cost one thousand dollars. It served 
the congregation for thirty years but in 1902, it was torn down to give 
place to a more modern and much grander edifice; but it almost seemed 
like sacrilege to tear down that old landmark of christian civilization. 
It had stood through so many storms and had sheltered so very many 
worshipers Where thousands of people had chanted anthems of praise, 
where so very many children had been confirmed in the faith of the 
fathers and where so many of our young people had taken their solemn 
vows at the sacred marriage altar — where so many sweet memories of 
the past were centered and from whose portals hundreds have been car- 
ried to the silent grave. Dear old house where God had met with his 
people so often ! It is indeed a sad thing to say farewell to thee. But 
like all earthly things thou in thy time served thy purpose and now 
must be numbered with the things of the past. 

The church was founded by that erand old veteran of the cross, 
Father K. T. Gruber in 18(59, when he gathered the scattered families of 
his faith in eastern Seward county. Nine families were gathered into 
the fold, viz: Diedrick Brant, Louis Liebrock, Conrad Grotz, Fred Roep- 
kee, Conrad Roerkasse,Wm. Lubbie, Frank Thomas, Andrew Shultz and 
M. C. Miller. Most of these old people are novy sleeping in the church 
yard and a great multitude of other people occupy their places. In 
1902, the present great new structure took the place of the old. It has 
a seating capacity of five hundred and cost thirty-six hundred dollars. 
This is the parent edifice of the great Evangelical Lutheran church of 
Sewaid county in western H town. Its present membership is sixty 
families and is the mother church of that denomination in this county 
which now numbers twelve congregations with several thousands of 
communicants, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



427 



SEWARD M. E. CHURCH 
By Rev.Dr.J.H.Presson 
The history of Methodism in Seward county commences with its 
first settlement. It came with the first camp-fires that lit up the groves 
and prairies, it was found in the hearts of many of the rugged iiioneers, 
who sang the songs of the Wesleys while they followed the jilow that 
broke the virgin soil. The Methodist itinerant, with his saddlebags. 




Se^vard M. E. Church 

bible, hymn book, and discipline, helped to lead the advance of civili- 
zation, and to establish in this beautiful land the gospel of the Son of 
God. Some of this number — preachers and laymen and devoted wives 
and mothers— have passed over and are numbered among the redeemed. 
Others are still with us, and are rejoicing in their well earned victories. 
They see and enjoy this beautiful land which they have helped rescue 
from the wilds of nature, and have transformed into a paradise of 
christian civilization, a land of home and plenty, where God dwells in 
the hearts of many people, and where all may enjoy the benefits of our 



428 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

blessed Christianity. The first minister visiting this locality was young 
Rev. Skaigs. 

In the year 1870 Seward was the head of a very large circuit. It was 
then a place of two or three hundred inhabitants. The preacher was 
the Rev. C. W. Comstock, his charge consisted of the north half of 
Seward, west half of Butler, all of Polk, and the north half of York 
counties. Milford at this time was the head of another large circuit, 
embracing the south half of this county, part of Saline and York 
counties. The Rev. A. Blackwell was the pastor. The entire mem- 
bership reported living within the bounds above mentioned was (85) 
eighty-five, except a few who lived in the extreme southwest corner of 
the county under the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Oliver. 

In the spring of 1871 the Rev. Josiah Burlingame was appointed to 
Seward charge, then a mission, embracing the northwest part of Seward, 
southwest part of Butler, and all of Polk counties. The society at 
Seward at this time was the possessor of four lots situated just west of 
where our high school building now stands. These lots were the gift 
of Louis Moffitt, the original owner of the town, for the use of the so- 
ciety for a church and parsonage but were subsequently disposed of in 
order to secure a more suitable location. Rev. A. J. Combs, now de- 
ceased, filled the pulpit in 1873. 

Milford this same year, was supplied by the Rev. D. C. Bannon, 
under whose labors a great revival took place, and many of the best 
families of the town were converted and became members of the 
church. In 1872 Seward was left most of the year without a shepherd. 
In 1873 Rev. A. L. Folden was the pastor. During his administration 
the old church, a brick structure, was completed and dedicated. The 
Rev. Bishop Andrews, who was master of ceremonies, found it a hard 
task to provide for the debt, but through the liberality of a few of the 
members, some of whom are yet living in this vicinity, the amount 
asked tor was subscribed, and the first M E. church of Seward county 
was dedicated to the service of God on the 29th day of December, 1874. 
Some of the trustees are still living in Seward. Too much praise can 
not be given the men and women who did so much for the cause of 
Christ in those early days. 

This same year there was a church built at Milford, under the pas- 
toiate of the Rev. John Gallagher. 

The Rev. T. L. McLean, who will be kindly remembered by many 
of the old residents as a man of ability and fine social qualities, served 
as pastor at Seward during the years 1875-6-7. 

In 1878 Rev. J. W. Shank was appointed to Seward. Utica was 
made an appointment, and attached to Milford, with Thos. H. Worley 
as pastor. At the close of that year there were reported 184 members 
in the county. The parsonage — the main part of it — was built that 
year. It is amusing now to hear the ladies tell of the various methods 
used in order to raise money to pay for the home of their pastor. The 
following preachers have been from time to time appointed since at 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 429 

Seward: Rev. J. P. Roe, Peter Van Vleete, E. J. Willis, G. W. Selby, 
Geo. M. Morey. 

(From this point the history was written by the Author. ) 
Rev. J. H. Presson commenced his pastorate with the church in 
the year 1886, and served three years and during his last year, 1889, the 
church determined to erect the elegant edifice of the present. In this 
great undertaking Rev. Presson threw all the force of energy he had in 
store. He worked unceasingly until the completion of the edifice was 
assured and the corner stone was laid under his pastorate in the autumn 
of 1889. The church was completed and dedicated June 1, 1890. The 
first committee on subscription secured 15184.00. At the time of dedi- 
cation 15458.00 had been paid and at dedication |4U46.00, including former 
pledges, was raised leaving a balance unpaid of $4,000, which under 
the pastorate of Rev. J. S. W. Dean was raised and paid off in Sep- 
tember, 1891. The total cost of the edifice was $13504. It is now en- 
tirely free from debt. The church edifice and parsonage are centrally 
located on the southwest corner of 3d St. and Jackson Ave. , facing 
south on a hundred foot street and west on 3d street. A most beautiful 
and valuable location. The building is of red pressed brick and is so 
well constructed that should no calamity befall it, it will stand for cen- 
turies. It is heated with a hot air furnace. The main audience room 
overlooked by a neat and commodious gallery, has a seating capacity of 
seven hundred including the lecture room which is connected by sliding 
doors. The edifice has three entrances. One, the main entrance is at 
the street corner, and one on 3d St. near the north end and leading to 
both main audience room and lecture room. The third entrance is on 
Jackson Ave. near the southeast corner. At the rear of the pulpit is 
an alcove ready for a great pipe organ which will in the future have a 
home in the church. This space is now used by the choir. The build- 
ing is well supplied with vestibules and cloak rooms. The seats are 
strong yet beautiful. The aisles are broad. The windows are of 
stained glass and well decorated, several of them memorial windows. 
The building is lighted by electric torches. The building is most com- 
plete and beautiful. The architecture is grand. As we have gazed at 
and admired this lovely house of God, we have often thought that in 
all the hundreds of cities great and small reaching from ocean to ocean, 
that it has been our privilege to visit, among all the grand church edi- 
fices that we have seen, none so completely fills the bill for beauty as 
our little church at Seward. One other feature we should mention is 
the dining room in the basement, where the ladies have all the para- 
phanalia for giving sociables. They have stove, tables, chinaware, etc. 
The pastors of the church since 1889 have been Rev. J. W. Sea- 
brook, one year ; Rev. J. S. W. Dean, two years ; A. B. Whitmer, two 
years ; Rev. T. A. Hull, two years ; Rev. J. F. Kemper, three years ; 
Rev. John Galliger, four years ; Rev. L. W. Grigsby, one year and the 
present incumbent. Rev. H. G. Wilcox. The parsonage is rather old 
and hardly in keeping with the grand church, but the property is quite 
valuable, worth about $1500, and the present value of the entire church 



430 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

property is now about $17000. The present membership is one hundred 
and fifty, and is in a prosperous condition. The church is of great 
value to all the citizens of the comnmnity. It is always open to great 
meetings of the proper character. It is a great blessing to the entire 
community. 

A large and flourishing Sabbath school is maintained also a pro.s- 
perous Epworth League and a Junior League is in good flourishing 
condition. 

MILFORD M. E. CHURCH 
By ]\rrs. E. J. Wortendyke 

Was organized in the summer of 1866 or rather it was a class with 
four members, viz : Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Brown and their two daugh- 
ters, Mrs. E. J. Badgley and Miss D. E. Brown. Our first minister 
was Rev. Skaigs, who preached every two weeks when he could get 
here. He served us one year when Rev. Olliver and Blackwell were 
here alternately during 1867, and then Rev. Win. Worley assisted Rev. 
Olliver. After this 7iev. Bryant was with us three months, when Rev. 
John Galliger took charge. Rev. Skaigs helped organize a Union Sab- 
bath school in the spring of 1866. Our preacher was superintendent 
when with us and J. L. Davison, Wm. Reed, Patrick David.son and 
others officiated at times. The Sunday school was held at the Jiome of 
J. L. Davison where preaching service was also held. We all enjoyed 
the Sunday school very much, as we could all take a part in it and it 
gave us a place to go and all get together and perhaps we would get in- 
vitations to dinner for that was the fashion those days. Then we could 
see all the neighbors and talk over all the news. Those were happy 
days but they soon passed. When winter came our school closed as 
many went away to work or spend the winter in other parts of the state. 

In the spring of 1867, our school was reopened in the home of Rev. 
Harrington, a United Brethren minister who settled near where the 
Industrial home is now located. Our school had its days of pi'osperity 
and its times of adversity. We lacked a supply of books. The Con- 
gregational and Presbyterian churches of Nebraska City, gave us a 
small lot of books which made our hearts glad and we laid then the 
foundations for more thorough and better work. Much of the time the 
river and creeks were high and impassible as there were no bridges, 

BEAVER CROSSING M. E. CHURCH 
The society was organized in November, 1888, in the hall over 
Eager's store by Rev. Geo. Abern, the blind evangelist. Later the^' oc 
cupied the old store building now occupied by F. Hunkins, then later 
they moved to the upper story of Dimerzy's store that stood where D. 
E. Campbell's store now stands. This building was burned and under 
the leadership of Rev. G. L. Hasford the old school house was bought 
in 1895. The society had a long and hard struggle with debt on the 
parsonage, but it was all paid off in 1901. For some years the church 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 431 

has prospered and grown rapidly, so that more adequate room was re- 
quired and the society determined to erect the present beautiful modern 
structure. It is up to date in every way. The auditorium is ;iGx46 
feet, with incline floor. Lecture room 18x32, and class room 13x16, 
with a splendid belfry 10x10 and 58 ft. high. The windows are of 
leaded glass and will add greatly to the appearance of the edifice. The 
church will be heated by a furnace. It is placed upon a commanding 
site and is an ornament to the little city. With the exception of the 
church at Seward it is the finest and best edifice in the county. It will 
cost 15000 when completed. Beaver Crossing has a right to be proud 
of this grand temple of worship, is the opinion of the author. 

UTICA M. E. CHURCH 
Was organized in 1880, Vjy Rev. W. H. Tibets. The records are 
lost to us and we can learn but little about the member.ship of the early 
days. Rev. A. J. Mar.sh was second pastor, in 1882, when H. Clover, 

B. F. Bosworth, A. T. Cougill, H. M. Colman., VV. W. Woodward, M. 
Cross, T. J. Brant and G. W. Miller were trustees. From that time 
the i^astors have been as follows: Rev. D. Z. Black, 1883; Rev. A. M. 
Ogburn, 1884 to 1886 ; Rev. G. A. Hobson, 1887 ; Rev. Enock Holland, 
1S8S ; Rev. H- C. Harman. 1889 to 1892 ; Rev. J. M. Darby, 1892 ; Rev. 

C. E. Rouse. 1893; Rev C. E. Givels. 1894 to 1897; Rev. L. Morrison. 
1897 to 1899 ; Rev. D. P. Cline. 1899 ; Rev. M. C. Smith, 1900 to 1902 ; 
Rev. O. T. Moore, 1902; Rev. I. C. Lemon, 1903; Rev. E. S. Burr the 
present incumbent, 1904 to the present. 

The church edifice was built in the early 80's, can't tell just the 
year. Cost near |2000, seats 250. Very creditable building. Present 
membership eighty-six. Have a fairly good parsonage. They main- 
tain a flourishing Sabbath .school of 135 pupils. 

UTICA PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 

Was organized, June 9, 1889, by Dr. T. L. Sexton with thirty-six 
members. Rev. A. H. Ewing was the first minister to supply the 
charge. The first session was comi^osed of the following members: 
elders, Wm. Close, now deceased; R. R. Williams and J. W. Scott. 
Services were regularly held in a hall. A Sunday school was organized 
and prayer meeting maintained. The present church edifice was built 
the same year. Rev. W. R. Adams was installed pastor in 1890. He 
also had charge of church at Tamora. Three years later was followed 
by Rev. J. C. Giffer, then Rev. Shaii^, Rev. W. H. Parker, Rev. \V. 
Watson and Rev. F. A. Mitchell as supplies. In 1897, Rev. W. H. 
Parker was installed pastor and remained two years, when Rev. J. B. 
Cherry located in February, 1900, who remained until the fall of 1904. 
During his pastorate the manse was purchased at a cost of $1200. Rev. 
N. W. Larimer was installed pastor in December, 1904, who is now in 
charge. Present membership is eighty-five and is in a flourishing con- 
dition. 



432 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

GERMANTOWN UNION CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 

It seems for some years dating back to the early settlement, a 
Methodist Episcopal church had occupied the field, but death and 
many removals had so descinated their numbers that it was deemed wise 
to disband and their chiirch property was sold to the Congregationalists, 
September, 10, 1900, who had organized with a membership of twenty- 
nine. We are not able to find the records of the organization. The 
present membership is thirty-six. John A. Ohlwiler and Henry Hans 
are among the leading meraliers. The church was without a regular 
pastor until January 1, 1904, when they joined with Immanuel church 
and .jointly employed Rev. G. L. Brakemager. They have a neat 
church edifice with a seating capacity of about 200 and costing four- 
teen hundred dollars. They maintain a flourishing Sabbath school. 
A church was built in 1890 by the M. E. people. 

UNITED BRETHEN CHURCH 

The first organization was effected in 1872, at the Slonecker school 
house ])y Rev. E. W. Johnson. Seward church was organized in 1878 
by Rev. Johnson. The church edifice was Ijuilt and dedicated by 
Bishop Wright in 1880. The class at Slonecker school house removed 
their membership to Seward in 1882. Rev. Johnson was pastor from 
1872 to 1875 ; Rev. Henry Lohr, from 1875 to 187(5 ; Rev. P. P. Landen 
was in charge from 1876 to 1877 and was followed by Rev. E. L. Austin ; 
Rev. Johnson was in charge in 1878 to 1881 ; followed by Rev. M. Wal- 
temire and he was followed by Rev. J. M. Eads in 1882; Rev. O. D. 
Cone had charge in 1883 and was followed by Rev. J. M. Dufiield in 
1884; In 1885 Rev. Cone had charge and died in the harness; Rev. J. J. 
Hamer completed the year 1885 ; Rev. J. eT. Lohr served in 1886 ; fol- 
lowed by Rev. F. W. Jones; followed by Rev. Mr. Olliver; succeeded 
by Rev. Mr. Horner, who was followed by Rev. E. F. Bowers; suc- 
ceeded by Rev. Mr. Strainyer; then Rev. J. M. Higgins; followed by 
Rev. H. E. Myers; then Rev. W. S. Lynde; followed by Rev. G. W. 
Shrader ; who was followed by Rev. T. S. Swan ; then Rev. A. G. Mc- 
Vey ; followed by the pi'esent pastor Rev. D. W. Davis. 

Present membership is about sixty with a flourishing Sabbath 
school of seventy-five pupils. There is a flourishing young people's so- 
ciety. Present class leader, Mrs. John Metz; S. S. superintendent, Miss 
Cora Smith, president Young Peoples Society, Ernest Figard ; class 
steward, Geo. Baless ; presiding stewart. Levy Hafer ; treasurer, Calvin 
Anderson; pi'esident Ladies Aid societ.y, Mrs. Levy Hafer; junior sup- 
erintendents, Mrs. E. Metz and Augusta Wullenwaber; trustees, Lewis 
Anderson, James J^'airbrother, Levy Hafer, Geo. Lefel and J. F. Metz. 

In the death of Rev. O. D. Cone the conference sustained a great 
loss. He was a most worthy and intelligent minister and was honored 
wherever known and was dearly loved by his parishioners. The church 
of his choice and where he labored so faithfully mourns the loss of a 
faithful servant and able defender, the community lo.ses one of its most 
highly honored citizens. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 433 

GROVER UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH 

Was organized in the autumn of 1889 by Rev. J. Sliattuck with 
fortj- five members. About the same time a Sundaj' school was organ- 
ized, with Ada Hill as superintendent with about thirty-five scholars. 
Kev. Shattuck was pastor tor about five years and was succeeded by 
Rev. J. W. Dunn ; followed by Rev. Curtis ; then came Rev. M. Falk- 
ener; followed by the pre.sent incumbent, Rev. W. D. Morgan who is 
both pastor and Sunday school superintendent. The school is in a 
prosperous condition with thirty members. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



CIVIC SOCIETIES 

Officers of several of the lodges have neglected to place the data in 
my hands and are left out, and the reader must not blame the author. 

MASONIC FRATERNITY 

Oliver Lodge No. 38, A. F. and A. M. was organized under dis- 
pensation July 29, 1871, by the following members, to-wit: C. J. Rich- 
mond, W. H. Tuttle, J, W. Dupin, Samuel Manley. A. W. Sperry, L. 
W. Manning, Thos. Corr, H. S. Faucett. 

In September, 1872, it seems there was a new dispensation or a re- 
newal of the first granted to the members: Thos. Corr, William Haj'es, 
H. C. Page, T. L. Norval, L. «. Johns, S D. Paddock, Samuel Man- 
ley, Wm. Leese, John Helms, James Hackney, J. W. Dupin and W. H. 
Tuttle. 

June 18, 1873, a charter was granted which bears the following 
names of members and officers : William Leese, W. M. ; T. L. Norval, 
S. W. ; Aurelius Roberts, J. W. ; J. W. Shields, Treasurer; J W. Dupin, 
Secretary ; Thomas Corr, Nathan Clough, O. P. Cope, M. Dunigan, James 
Hackney, Wm. Hayes, L. G. Johns, J. C. Langton, Horace Lester, 
Samuel Manley, L. W. Manning, Geo. Miller, S. D. Paddock, H. C. 
Page, C. J. Richmond, Madison Rogers, Robert RowT)ottom, W. T. 
Shields, I. B. Sorter, Sam. Stevenson, J. C. Sullivan, Joel Tishue, A. 
B. Sutton, Joseph Whitson, and O. T. B. Williams. The first Worship- 
ful Master was C. J. Richmond ; first Sen. Warden, W. H. Tvittle ; Hr.st 
Jun. Warden, Sam.. Manley. 

We regret that our masonic brethren were so careless as to neg- 
lect to furnish data to bring history of their lodge up to date. 

QTICA LODGE NO. 96, A. F. AND A. M. 
By C. S. Swartz Asst. Sec. 
On the 14th day of July, 1882, a dispensation was granted by the 
Grand Lodge of Nebraska to Joseph Jones, E. J. Porter, Thomas E. 
Standard, Stephen H. Hobble, Lyman Calder, Robert Mailer, Samuel 
H. Beaver, James G. Hibbard, Joseph J. Pounder, David M, Roland, 
Geo. A. Verbach and Edmund L. Blanchard, all Free and Accepted 
Masons, to assemlile as a lodge of Free Masons at Utica, Nebraska. 
Having passed the proper term of probation, on the 19th day of June, 
1883, to the aliove mentioned petitions together with the following 
members: Thomas C. Allen, Andrew Austin. John C. Bicount, Cyrus 
Black, Thomas E. Standard, Thomas J. Brant, William Dingman, Ira 
Tapham, James E. Murphj-, Calvin E. Phinney, Prisley Pindell and 
Harvey Robinson. They were organized as a regular and constitu- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 435 

tional lodge of Master Masons under the name of Utica Lodge No. 99, 
with the following officers: Joseph Jones, W. M. ; E. J. Porter, S. W. ; 
Lyman Calder, J. W. ; Samuel H. Beaver, Sec. ; Robert Marler, Treas. ; 
Stephen H. Hobbie, S. D. ; .<ames E. Hubbard, J. D. • Thomas E. 
Standard, Tyler; Joseph Pounder and Edmund L. Blanchard, Stew- 
ards. 

The lodge thus organized has steadily progressed under a fair state 
of prosperity vip to the present time. On the 3rd of March, 1905, an 
auxiliarj' of the Masons — a chapter of the Eastern Star was organized, 
with fair prospects of becoming a good strong order. 

Our list of honored dead who were members in good standing of 
this lodge at the time of their demise are : John Davies, Oscar D. 
Swartz, John A. Boon, Charles Greenwood, Daniel P. Sherwood, and 
Calvin E. Phinney and Joseph .lones, besides a number of others who 
were demitted and were members of other lodges at the time of their 
death. Our total membership up to the present time, March 1, 1905, is 
94, counting those whom we have lost by death, demits and otherwise. 
Our present membership is 35 and we feel that we have wielded a great 
influence for good in the community. Since our organization we have 
had the following Masters : Joseph Jones, Samuel Runyan, Daniel J. 
Hartrum, Thomas J. Brant, Tom L. Davies, Fred G. Limback and Wil- 
liam C. Kenner. 

Our present officers are William C. Kenner, vV. M. ; Jacob Severin, 
S. W. ; Geo. W. Collamore, J. W. ; Daniel J. Hartrum, Sec. ; Joseph 
Jones, Treas. ; Chas. L. Swartz, S. D. ; Gustav Rutenbeck, Jr. , J. D ; 
Henry Larson, S. S. ; Tom L. Davies, J. S. ; Nicholas Cradick, Tyler. 

SEWARD LODGE NO. 26 I. O. O. F. 
Samuel Pense, Sec. 

The Odd Fellows of Seward became instituted and organized, May 
30, 1871, by Grand IVlaster John Hamlin. Charter members : L. G. 
Johns, D. H. Figard, J. H. Anderson, W. R. Davis, and T. D. Green. 
The first officers were, L. G. Johns, N. G. ; D. H. Figard, V. G. ; J. 
H. Anderson, Sec. ; and T. D. Green, Treas. Samuel Pence was the 
first initiated candidate and has never been delinquent in dues, and is 
intitled to wear the veteran .jewel. 

There has been admitted to membership to the present time 234. 
By initiation 144 and by card 90. The lodge has paid for relief of its 
members the sum of 11812.00. A fine hall was built by the order in 
1886, and the present value of the lodge property is estimated at 
13,000.00. The lodge at this time is doing w-ell having initiated 15 
within the last year with bright prospects for the future. The present 
officers are G. A. Merriam, N. G. ; H. E. Hassinger, V. G. ; Samuel 
Pence, Sec. ; T. C. Sampson, Treas. ; Trustees, F. A. Marsh, F. R. 
Wooley and U. H. Franklin. They meet every Monday night and all 
Odd Fellows are always welcome. 

COLUMBIA REBEKAH LODGE NO. 84 
The ladies auxiliary to the I. O. O. F. was organized, February 



436 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

16, 1893, with the following charter members: Martha Marsh, Nellie 
J. Redford, Susie L. Holland, Amy McKay, Belle Erford, Mary R. 
Johns, Mary Mulfinger. Rosa Kohn, Nellie Pelkey, Mary Kilpatrick, 
Emily Pence, Lois C. Roberts, Jennie B. Clark, Celia E. Woolley, 
Louisa Edwards, F. A. Marsh, Wm. Redford, C. E. Holland, H. M. 
McKay. J. H. Erford, J. C. Mulfinger, B. Kohn, F. A. Pelkey, G. A. 
Kilpatrick, Samuel Pence, M. T. Roberts, S. B. Clark, F. R. Woolley, 
J. P. Dunham and L. G. Johns. 

The first officers were: Martha Marsh, Noble Grand; Nellie J. 
Redford, Vice Grand ; L. G. Johns, Secretary ; Amy McKay, Treasurer. 

This lodge has been the means of promoting the grand cause for 
which it with its brother lodge the I. O. O. F. stands: that of friend- 
ship, love, and truth and after twelve years of existence we can truth- 
fully say that its life has not been lived in vain. The present officers 
are Emma A. Neihardt. Noble Grand; Agnes J. Pence, Vice Grand; 
Jennie M. Lowley, Secretary and Bertha Franklin, Treasurer. 

SEWARD A. O. U. W. 
By F. G. Simmons 

Among the numerous fraternal orders represented in the city of 
Seward, none stands higher in the estimation of the pul)lic than the 
Ancient Order of United Workman. A lodge of this order was insti- 
tuted on September 27, 1883, under the designation of Anchor Lodge 
No. 16. The state of Nebraska was then attached to the jurisdiction 
of Missouri, and the instituting officer was T. A. Foreman, Deputy 
Grand Master Workman of Missouri. The list of charter members was 
as follows : L. M. Smith, J. S. Leonhardt,R. S. Norval,C N. Emilton, 
W. A. Schell, E. A. Polley. C. M Hovey, S. D. Atkins, F. G. Simmons, 
Wm. Clemmons, Wm. Schultz, H. M. Waring, J. H. Erford, W. N. 
Walker, Louis Stahl, W. J. Taylor, J. R. Erford, Louis Leibrock, Henry 
Petri, Bernhard Kohn, Valentine Minor, A. J. Senter, E. H. Fletcher, 
C. Grabnstein, W. O. Whitcomb, Henry Hartwick. 

Officers for the first term were elected as follows : A. J. Senter, 
Past Master Workman ; Henry Hartwick, Master Workman ; J. H. Er- 
ford, Foreman; E. A. Polley, Overseer; S. D. Atkins, Recorder; C. N. 
Emilton, Financier ; Wm. Clemmens, Receiver; J. R. Erford, Guide; 
Wm. Schultz, Inside Watchman ; E. H. Fletcher. Outside Watchman ; 
Dr. J. S. Leonhardt, Medical Examiner; R. S. Norval, W. J Taylor, 
Louis Stahl, Trustees 

In the twenty-one years since the organization of the lodge, a large 
number of the best citizens of Seward and vicinity have l)een initiated 
into its membership. Many have left it to assist in the formation of 
lodges of the order in other towns of the county and elsewhere, some 
have died, and others have withdrawn voluntarily. Some fouijhundred 
in all have been members of the lodge, and the present membership is 
230. 

Many men prominent in county and state affairs have been mem- 
bers of this lodge, some of whom still remain in our midst, while others 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 437 

have joined the great majority. Among them may be mentioned the 
following: E. C Cams, senator and lieutenant governor; T. L. Ner- 
val, district and supreme judge; D. H. Figard, county treasurer; ft. P. 
Anderson, county attorney ; Wm. Leese, attorney general ; R. S. Norval, 
state senator; D. D. Remington, county treasurer; L. F. Schultz, 
county treasurer; G. A. ^lerriam, clerk of district court. 

Anchor Lodge was active in the agitation which led to the separa- 
tion of Nebraka from the jurisdiction of Missouri. In 1886 this event 
took place, and the Nebraska Grand Lodge was established, with 2,090 
members. Since that time the membership in Nebraska has steadily 
increased, until now it reaches nearly 40,000. Millions of dollars have 
been paid by the order in this state to the beneficiaries of its deceased 
members. In the twenty-one years seventeen members of Anchor Lodge 
have died, and -12,000 has been paid to the family of each, thus sustain- 
ing the reputation of the order as a reliable organization for the pro- 
tection of the homes of its members. 

Members of Anchor Lodge were from the beginning active in the 
councils of the Grand Lodge, and several of its members have held im- 
portant positions in that body. At the oiganization of the Grand 
Lodge, F. G. Simmons became a member of the Finance Committee, 
serving in that capacity for three years. He also edited the Nebraska 
Workman, the official organ of the order in the state, in 1894-95, and 
since 1901 has been serving as Deputy Grand Master Workman. In 
1889 E. A. Policy -was appointed a member of the Finance Committee 
of the Grand Lodge. In 1890 a vacancy occurred in the office of Grand 
Receiver (Treasurer,) and Mr. Policy was appointed to that place. 
After serving out the unexpired term, he was elected for three succes- 
sive terms of two years each, thus completing seven years in this highly 
responsible office, with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the 
order. He has also been a representative to the Supreme Lodge. J. H. 
Erford is another member of Anchor Lodge who has served both the 
Grand and Supreme Lodges. He became successively Grand Foreman 
and Grand Master Workman, was several times elected representative 
to the Supreme Lodge, and served several years as an officer of that 
body. It will thus be seen that Anchor Lodge has been a force in the 
work of the order, from its organization up to the present time. 

Present officers of the lodge are as follows: C. E. Boyes, Past Masr 
ter Workman ; W. H. Moore, Master Workman ; H. E. Hassinger, Fore- 
man ; C. N. Slonecker, Overseer; F. H. Melosh, Recorder; L. A. 
Kenner, Financier; G. H. Terwilliger, Receiver; Arthiir Humphrey, 
Guide ; Cal Anderson, Inside Watchman ; T. S. Berry, Outside Watch- 
man ; Dr. F. A. Marsh, Medical Examiner ; C. K. Humphrey, Jacob 
Zinky, M. E. Shorey, Trustees. 

Of those who were charter members of the lodge, the following are 
still members in good standing : R. S. Norval, E. A. Policy, F. G. 
Simmons. Wm. Schultz, B. Kohn, W. A. Schell, S. D. Atkins, Wm. 
Clemmens, ,\. H. Erford, W. J. Taylor. 

The lodge owns a fine hall, is entirely out of debt, and has ample 



438 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

means to carrj- out any plans it may undertake. In its twenty-one 
years of life it has proven itself to be one of our most woithy institu- 
tions, furnishing iDrotection to its members at low cost, and exemplify- 
ing the principles of charity and fraternity to the fullest extent. All 
classes of our citizens, whether members of the organization or not, 
recognize its worth and give it their hearty good wishes for the future. 

SEWARD POST NO. 3, G. A. R. 

Was organized December 16, 1880, by Capt. John S. Wood, of 
Omaha, Assistant Adjutant General, Der^artment of Nebraksa. The 
following were chosen officers: J. N. Edwards, Commander; Wm. 
Hays, Senior Vice Commander ; S D. Love, Junior Vice Commander ; 
D. H. Figard, Q. M. ; A. W. Hageman. Surgeon; Jeff. Ogg, Adjutant; 
A. H. Edwards, Officer of the Day ; J. D. Edwards, Sergeant Major ; H. 
Vanderhoof, O. G. 

The charter members were : H. M. Hinsdale, Jefferson Ogg, Thomas 
Corr, A. W. Hageman. Henry Vanderhoof, S. D. Love, Abraham Wal- 
lick. C. C. Jobes, J. C. Ford, C. K. Humphrey, G. W. Hoover, J. M. 
Fletcher, Wm. liays, J. D. Messinger, J. N. Edwards, Wm. Clemens, 
A, H. Edwards, D. H. Figard, J. D. Edwards, Geo. W. Fuller, Geo. 
W. Whiting, Geo. H. Sidle, A. J. Williams. Thos. B. Siddons, Chas. 
Lyon, and Cyrus Fetterman. 

The post started out vvith the above named veterans, with the full 
hope of bringing in all the boj's who wore the blue and that lived in 
reach of the jiost. The boys had camij-fire meetings, sung songs of the 
long ago, and mustered during the year 1881, the following memljers: 
Daniel W. Crouse, S. H. Marshall, Wm. Leese, H. M. Brooks, John H. 
Morris, S. N. Welsh. Benj. W. Walker, Henry Morris, L. G. Johns, E. 
E. Horn, Alfred Stephens, Jacob Andrews, John Larson, R. T. Cooper, 
Robt. W. Pound, J. L. S. Jackson, E. C. Archer, Ed. Cooper, J. C. 
Lockhart, Wm. Redford, L. G. Castle, M. Richtmeyer, J. H. Ander- 
son, C. C. Ternicliff. Jas. W. Woods, A. M. Simpson, P. H. Steele, 
Henry Jett, John Ohlwilei, W. H. R. Phillips, John M. Thurman, 
Henry Creighton, Jas. Wright. 

January 1, 1882, the following having been elected to fill the var- 
ious offices of the post, were duly installed : J. N. Edwards, Comman- 
der ; Cyrus Fetterman, Senior Vice; Wm. Woods, Junior Vice; S. D. 
Love, Q. M. ; A. W. Hageman, Surgeon; J. M. Fletcher, Chaplain; H. 
Vanderhoof, O. D. ; C. K. Humphrey, O. G. ; Wm. Clemens, Adjt. ; D. 
W. Crouse, Q. M. S. ; C. W. Lyon, Sergeant Major. 

The post continued to hold meetings during 1882, with some draw- 
backs, which were hapjiily adjusted during the year by th( men getting 
into a hall by themselves, and began to gather an outfit peculiarly 
needed in a post room. 

The following were mustered during 1882 : Daniel Brady, John 
Hanley, Jacob Cox. 

In December, 1882, the post elected the following officers to serve 
for the ensuing year of 1883 : S. D. Love, Commander ; M. Thurman, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 439 

Senior Vice; Win. Woods, Junior Vice; C. K, Humphrey, Q. M. ; A. 
W. Hageman, Surgeon ; Daniel Brady, Chaplain ; E. H. Horn, O. D. ; 
H. M. Brooks, O. G. ; H. Vanderhoof, Adjt. 

During this year the post mustered a number of new members, and 
many good social gatherings were had, long to be remembered by the 
boys. The following were mustered in : Jas. Moorhead, John Wester 
hoof, S. J. Ashton, C. Chapin. S. R. Philips, Chas. Emerson, W. T. 
Olmstead, W. S. Saunders, Wm. Silence, John Welsh, D. C. McKillip, 
Henry Sanders, E. C. Parkinson (by transfer,) M Pilgrim, John 
Knobbs, Wm. Morgan. 

December 1, 188B, the following were elected officers for the year 
1884; E. C. Parkinson, Commander; C. C. Jobes, Senior Vice; A. W. 
Hageman, Junior Vice ; H. Sanders, Chaplain; J. H. Welsh, Surgeon; 
C. K. Humphrey, Q. M. ; A. H. Edwards, O. D. ; M. Pilgrim, O. G. ; 
H. Vanderhoof, Adjt. 

The post started out for the year in good trim, and had many good 
camp-fires, tending to revive the veterans up and bring in some old 
comrades from the outside. During the year the following were brought 
in by muster, etc. E. A Hitchcock, John Rhodes, B. Chattuck, J. 
M, Strayer, Leander Callaghan, S. C. Stanwood, S. H. Carter, J. A. 
Mick (by transfer,) Chas. P. Stephenson (by transfer), S. G. Jones, 
Wm. Wait, S. D. Dutton, G. W. Boyes, J. J. Redding, R. R. Schick, 
J. H. Walker, L. A. Weldon, A. Crawford, C. Turner, W. H. Walker. 
Geo. W. Lowly, P. Cameron, W. B. Barrett, Gen. Jas. M. True, J. P. 
Losee, J. C. Thomas, J. B. Ireland, C. E. Vanpelt, S. C. Biirlingim, J. 
T. Dunrig, M. Millspaugh, C. C. Davis. 

September 6, 1884, E. C. Parkinson resigned the office of Comman- 
der, and C. C. Jobes, who was then Sen. Vice, was elected to fill the 
vacancy until the next annual election, which occurred December 6, 
1884, by the election of A. H. Edwards as Commander ; A. W. Hageman, 
Sen. Vice ; A. Crawford, Junior Vice ; C. Turner, Surgeon ; J. M. 
Fletcher, Chap. ; E. C. Parkinson, Q. M. ; Lee'Welden, O. D. ; T. B. 
Siddons, O. G. ; W. H. Walker, Ad.it. This year was a pleasant one 
with the veterans. They added many needed improvements to the post 
room, gathered in members, and got the post on a firm foundation. 
The following were mustered in during the year: John N. Halliday, 
John W. Gladwish, S. M. Caldwell, B. Smith, Rev. T. L. Sexton, C. 
Dunn. C. H. Goldsmith, W. P. Christian, M. D. Monley, Alf. Wilcox, 
Chas. Scribner, H. G. Hosford, W. R. Davis, E. Faust, W. J. Eatinger, 
Geo W. Anderson, Jededia Austin, Josei)h Miller (by transfer). 

Dec. 5, 1885, election of officers resulted as follows : A. H. Edwards, 
commander; S. R. Phillips, Sen. Vice; Wm. Redford. Jun. Vice; Wra. 
Wood, Surgeon ; H. Saunders, Chap. ; E. C. Parkinson, Q. M. ; L. A. 
Weldon, O. D. ; M. D. Monley, O. G. ; W. T. Olmstead, Adjt. The 
year of 1886 was an auspicious one for the i)ost. Many valuable im- 
provements were made and many good old carap-tires were had. There 
were mustered during tbe year as follows: B. Lindsey, D. C. Conley, 



440 ' HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Orrin Squires, C. M. Clark. Rev. John Lohr, Alex. Davis, Jiev. J. H. 
Presson, D. C. Work, Jacob Lawsha. 

Dec. 4. 1886, the election resulted as follows: A. W. Hageman. 
Commander; Wm. Redford, Sen. Vice; T. B. Siddons, Jun. Vice; J. M. 
Strayer, Q. M. ; Wm. Woods, Surgeon; J. H. Pre.sson, Chap. ; E. C. 
Parkinson. O. D. ; B. Lindsey, O. G. ; D. C. Work, Ad.it. During this 
year many were brought in who had long been on the ourtside and foiind 
that they needed a home among the "boys." The following were mus- 
tered: Jesse Knight, Amos Collraan, J. W. Wharton, Nelson Taylor, 
Robert O'Dell, John Woods, A. A. Palmer, R. H. Woodward, L. J. 
Grant, C. F. Dawley, I. D. Nelhardt (by transfer), John R. Wenciker, 
A. L. Goss. , J. G. .Baylis, B. Fuller, F. Morton, A. G. Compton (by 
transfer, ) L. V. Bolon (by transfer, ) Jas. Devine. 

Dec. 3, 1887, the following were elected for the ensuing year : 
Henry Morris, Commander; Wra. Redford, Senior Vice; D. H. Figai'd, 
Junior Vice ; J. H. Presson, Chaplain; S. N. Welsh, Surgeon; J. M. 
Strayer, Q. M. ; A. H. Edwards, O. D. ; M. Millspaugh, O. G. 

The post has exerted a great influence for good during its existence 
and has always demonstrated the principles of the organization, towit, 
fraternity, charity, and loyalty ; and in extending the helping hand to 
those of its membership, or the old veterans outside, has done .so in 
such a manner as to exemplify the adage, "that it is more blessed to 
give than receive, " and that it was a privilege to aid the needy com- 
rades or their families. Several hundred dollars have been expended 
Dy the post in helping the old veterans and the widows and orphans 
living in the vicinity. The post has a burial plat in the Seward cem- 
etery in which to lay the remains of those comrades that were without 
means to provide the same. 

In the department encampment the jiost has been conspicuous for 
its ability and influence. During the year 1882, the state reunion came 
very near being held at Seward through the efforts of its representatives 
and the citizens of Seward. 

The post has been honored by the selection of J. N. Edwards and 
E. C. Parkinson as members of the department council of administra- 
tion, and J. H. Presson as Chaplain of the department ; also having 
elected J. N. Edwards several times a delegate to the national encamp- 
ment. 

The membership in good standing, as shown l)y the quarterly re- 
port dated Sei^tember HU, 1887, was one hundred and three (103) and 
the desire to .join the G. A. R. seems to increase on the part of many 
old veterans that have heretofore hesitated to connect themselves with 
any soldier organization. 

The prospects of the post for the future seem bright, and it hopes 
to gather in all the old veterans in its vicinity, realizing the fact that 
the material from which recruiting can be made is fast passing away, 
and it is desirable that all the old veterans should stand elbow to elbow. 
As age demonstrates that many years have passed since their interests 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 441 

began, and as there is strength in united action, it is greatly to their 
mutual good that they should combine themselves together to exemplify 
loyalty to country and to each other. 

The following comrades have filled the office of commander since 
1887. Henry Morris, John M. Strayer, David C. Work, S. D. Love, 
W. B. Barrett. J. M. Fletcher, A. Crawford, Wm. Bedford, Dan Nie- 
hardt. A. W. Hageman, T. F. Skeede, John Woods, Isaac D. Neihardt, 
Orrin Squires, Henry Vanderhoof, Jonas W. Woods, Lunis (.i. Castle, 
Joseph J. Hamlin. 

Since the post has been established there have been mustered out 
by death the following members — Daniel Brady, John F. Haney, (tus 
Hinsdale, David Figard, J. M. Fletcher, Ben Walker, George Lowley, 
W. B. Barrett, Jeff Ogg, George Anderson, Samuel Welch, H. H. San- 
ders, Wm. Redford. A. W. Hageman, Peter Cameron. W. R. Davis, W. 
O. Pierce, Robt. McCrossin, D. C McKillip, D. B. Neihardt, George 
Whiting, Levi Groal. Silas Sprague, H. (t. Hasford, B. Lindsay, J. N. 
Edwards. S. Snick, J. M. Brue, J. C. Andrews. Emerson L. Osborn, 
H. Hayes, J. Gass, S. C. Stanwood, J. B. Stowell and Wm. Leese. 

The membership of the post is now only about twenty-five the 
members having been lessoned by death and removals to other places of 
residence. 

GERMANTOWN M. W. OF A. 

Germantown Camp No. 1523, M. W. A. was granted charter the 
15th of December, 1890, with the following named officeis : M. B. Pal- 
mer. Venerable Counsel: R. H. Kuhrts, Worthy Adviser; Louis Meyers, 
Banker ; O. L. Cox. Clerk ; W. B. White, Escort ; H. R. Robinson, 
Watchman; John Ohlwiler. Sentry; John Ohwiler, Louis Meyers, and J. 
C. White, Board of Managers. 

Garland Camp No. 377, R. N. of A. instituted, February 27, 1896, 
charter granted, May 25, 1890. List of members : Mrs. E. A. Ohiey, 
Mrs. Minnie Hans, Mrs. Ella Morrow, Mrs. Hattie Palmer, Mrs Minnie 
Scott, Mrs. Carrie McLean, Mrs. Magnolia White, Mrs. KittieB. Thomp- 
son, Mrs. Annie E. Waldman, Mrs Ella Lewellen, Mrs Minnie Alberti, 
Mrs. Minnie Gumpbel. Mrs. Loa Adell Taylor, Mrs. Margaret Ohwiler, 
Mrs. Flora Garland, Mrs. Armeta Ringenergb, Mrs. Jane Fetterman, 
Mrs. Elizabeth Francis, Miss Myra Gibbs, Miss Edith Ohwiler, Miss 
Anna Waldman. 

BEAVER CROSSING BEN HUR, COURT NO. 94 , 
Was organized, August 28, 1900. with fifteen charter members. At 

present date, February, 1905, the membership consists of one hundred 

and fifty three. It is confidently expected that this court will soon 

rank among the best in the state. 

We are indebted to Clara L. Slonecker, the present scribe, for the 

above. 



CHAPTER XXV 



Official History of Seward County — Official History of Seward — Official 
History of Milford — Our Boys and Cxirls — Smiles of Heaven — The 
Author's Thanks — Finis. 



STATE SENATORS 
1st.— Hon. E. C. Cams, elected 1876. Republican. 
2d. — Hon. T. L. Norval, elected 1878. Republican. 
3d. -Hon. Thomas Graham, elected 1880. Democrat. 
4th.— Hon. R. E. Dunphy, elected 1883. Democrat. 
5th. — Hon. J. F. Goehner, elected 1884. Republican. 
6th.— Hon. C. J. Wright, elected 1886. Democrat. 
7th.— Hon. R. S. Norval, elected 1888. Republican. 
9th. — Hon. George W. Lowley, elected 1894. Republican, 
nth.— Hon. VV. E. Richie, elected 1896. Democrat. 
13th. — 

15th. —Hon. H. B. Cummins, elected 1900. Populist. 
17th.— Hon. M. W. Uimery, elected 1904. Republican. 

REPRESE^ TATIVES— TERRITORIAL 
1st. — Hon. Wm. Imlay, 1864. Republican. 
2d.— Hon. E. L. Clark, 1866. Republican. 

REPRESENTATIVES-STATE 
1st.— Hon. E. L. Clark, 1867. Republican. 

2d. — Hon. Marcus Brush, 1868, from Saunders county. Democrat. 
3d. — Hon. A. Roberts, 1K70, from Butler coiinty. Republican. 
4th.— Hon. W. J. Thompson, 1872, resigned. Republican. 
5th.— Hon. D. C. McKillip, 1873. Republican. 
6th.— Hon. D. C. McKillip, 1874. Republican. 
7th.— Hon. T. A. Healy, 1876, resigned. Republican. 
8th. — Hon. Wm. Hickman, 1877, to fill vacancy. Republican. 
9th. — Hon. Thomas Wolfe, 1876, two members. Republican., 
loth.— Hon. Wm. Hickman, 1878. Republican, 
nth.— Hon. H. A. French, 1878. Republican. 
12th.— Hon. Henry Bick, 18H0. Republican. 
13th.— Hon. H P. King, 1880, resigned. Republican. 
14th. Hon. — L. Chaduck, 1881, to fill vacancy. Republican. 
15th. — Hon. J. Swearingen, 1882. Republican. 
16th.— Hon. D. J. Brown, 1882. Republican. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 443 

17th. —Hon. Thomas Corr, 1884. Republican. 
18th.— Hon. C. M. Turner, 1884. Republican. 
19th. — Hon. Nicholas Wolenwaber, 1886. Democrat. 
20th.— Hon. Henry Bick, 1886. Mugwump. 
21st. — Hon. Adam Seed, 1884. Republican. 
21st. — Hon. Henry Beckman, 1888. Republican. 
22d.— Hon. Wm. E. Ritchie, 1890. Democrat. 
22d. — Hon. Simon Johnson. 1890. Democrat. 
23d.— Hon. D. J. Brown, 1892. Republican. 
23d.— Hon. R. C. Rhea. 1892. Republican. 
24th. — Hon. W. H. Brokaw, 1894. Populist. 
24th.— Hon. D. D. Remington, 1894. Populist. 
25th.— Hon. J. B. Mitchel. 1896. Democrat. 
52th. -Hon. Dewit Eager, 1896. Populist. 
26th.— Hon. Geo. W. Fuller, 1898. Populist. 
26th.— Hon. John Endicott. 1898. Demociat. 
27th.— Hon. Wm. H. Berkley, 1900. Republican. 
27th. -Hon. Geo. W. Fuller, 1900. Populist. 
28th.— Hon. Silas Atwood, 1902. Republican. 
28th.— Hon. John McLain, 1902. Republican. 
29th.— Hon. Silas Atwood, 1904. Republican. 
29th. —Hon. John McLain, 1904. Republican. 

PROBATE JUDGES 
1st. — J. L. Davidson, 1865. Republican. 
2d. — J. D. Maine, 1867. Republican. 
3d. — Henry Wortendyke, 1869. Republican. 
4th.— J. W. Shields, 1871. Democrat. 
5th.— O. T. B. Williams, 1873. Republican. 
6th. — George W. Lowley, 1881. Republican. 
7th.— C. £. Holland, 1887-1889. Republican. 
8st.— W. H. Miner, 1889—1893. Democrat. 
9th.— A. Hiller, 1893—1897. Republican. 
10th.— J. J. Thomas, 1897-1901. Democrat. 
11th. — Joseph Dupin, 1901. Democrat. Died. 

12th. — A. Leavens, 1901. Democrat. Appointed. Elected in 1902- 
1903-1905. 

COUNTY CORONERS 
1st.— W. W. Cox was elected, but did not qualify, in 1867. 
2d.— J. M. Evans., elected 1869. Repul)lican 
3d.— E. L. Clinton, 1871. Republican. 
4th.— Leland Walker, 1873-77. Republican. 
5th. -J. H. Woodward, 1877-79. Republican. 
6th.— B. Brandon. 1879-81. Democrat. 
7th.— A. K. Siep, 1881-89. Republican. 
8th.— F. A. Greedy, 1889-91. Democrat. 
9th— W. S. Townsend, 1891-93. Repuolican. 



444 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

10th.— H. H. Shultz, 18<»3-97. Republican, 
nth.— C. W. Doty, 1897- 1901. Democrat. 
12th.— J. G. Muir, 1901-05. Republican. 

COUNTY TREASURERS 
1st.— C. J. Neihardt, 18()o-(i9. Republican. 
2a. —E. L. Clark, Jr., 1809-71. Republican. 
3d.— M. A. McPherson, 1871-73. Republican. 
4th.— W. B. Thorp, 1873-77. Republican. 
5th.— L. G. Johns, 1877-81. Republican. 
9th.— R. T. Cooper, 1881 83. Republican. 
7th.— D. H. Figard, 1885-89. Republican. 
8th.— W. N. McNiel, 1889-93. Democrat. 
9th.— John Multinger, 1893-97. Republican. 
10th.— D. D. Remington, 1897-1901. Populist, 
nth.— Lother Shults, 1901-05. Repiiblican. 

COUNTY CLERKS 
1st. — Thomas West, 18(i5-()7. Republican. 
2d. — Wm. H. Reed, 18(<7-09. Republican. 
3d.— Thomas Graham, 1809-79. Democrat. 
4th.— Ed O'Keefe, 1879-81. Greenbacker. 
5th.— Joseph W. Dupin, 1881-87. Democrat. 
9th.— R. T. Cooper, 1887-89 Republican. 
7th.— August Ricktnan, 1889-93 Democrat. 
8th.— D. C. Work. 1893-97. Republican. 
9th. --C. B. Supiger, 1897-1903 Democrat. 
10th.- -James M. Calder, 1903-05 Democrat. 

DISTRICT CLERK 
Coiintj' clerks filled this position until March, 1879, when H. P. 
Lewis was appointed and held the office until 1883, when G. A. Mer- 
riam was elected for sixteen years. James Calder was elected in 1900. 
Don C. Gwortney was elected in 1903 to serve till 1907. 

SHERIFFS 

1st. Chapin, 1805-07. Republican. 

2d.— A. J. Wallinglord, 1867-69. Republican. 

3d.— W. H. Tuttle, 1869 71. Republican. 

4th.— J. W. McCabe, 1871-73. Republican. 

5th.— I. D. Neihardt, 1873-77. Repul)lican. 

6th.— John Sullivan, 1877-81 Democrat 

7th. — John Brown (died in office,) 1881-85 Democrat. 

8th.— C. H. Adams, 1885-87 Democrat. 

9th.— J.' M. Smiley, 1887-89. Republican. 

10th.— C. H. Adams, 1889-93. Democrat. 

nth.— C. V. Remy, 1893-1897. Republican. 



1 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 445 

12th. —J. H. Wise, 1897-1901. Populist. 
13th. J. Smiley, 1901-05. Republican. 

SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS 
1st. — ^Thomas Graham appointed, 18(J7. Democi'at. 
2nd.— Geo. B. France, 1869-75. Republican. 
3d.— J. D. Messenger, 1875-81. P.epublican. 
4th.— E. Benson, 1881-83. Republican. 
5th.— M. Warner, 1883-87. Republican. 
6th.— G. F. Burkett, 1887-89. Republican. 
7th.— M. Mehan, 1889-91. Democrat. 
8th.— U. O. Anderson. 1891-93. Populist. 
9th.— Ed. Healey, 1893-97. Republican. 
10th.— U. O. Anderson, 1897-1901. Populist. 
11th.— E. H. Koch, 1901-05. Republican. 

SURVEYORS 
1st.— R. T. Gale. 1865-69. Republican. 
2d.— J. H. Anderson, 1869-73. Republican. 
3d.— J. V. Ainsworth, 1873-75. Republican. 
4th.— G. A. Kilpatrick, 1875-81. Republican. 
5th.— E. Jull, 1881-83. Republican. 
6th.— G. A. Kilpatrick, 1873-95. Republican. 
7th.— J. A. Cocklin, 1897-99. Democrat. 
8th.— G. A. Fergeson, 1899-1900. Democrat. 
10th— .C. F. Nelson, 1900. Resigned. 
11th.— W. L. Walker, 1902 to fill vacancy. 
12th.— C. A. Bemis, 1903-05. 

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 
1st.— William Iralay. H. W. Parker, and W. J. Thompson, 1865-1866. 
Republicans. 

2d.— Wm. Imlay, 1866-67. Republican. 
3d.— W. J. Thompson, 1867-68. Republican. 
4th.— J. L. Bandy 1868-69. Repviblican. 
5th.— Wm. Imlay, 1869-70. Republican. 
6th. — Wm. Hornburg, 1870-71. Republican. 
7th.— D. H. Harris, 1871-72. Republican. 
j8th.— Samuel Manley, 1872-73. Republican. 
9th.— Ben j. Hunkins, 1873-74. Democrat. 
10th.— M. Dunigan 1874-75. Democrat. 
11th.— W.G. Hazelwood 1875-76. Republican. 
12th.— G. F. Hurlburt, 1876-77. Republican. 
13th.— L. D. Bates, 1877-78. Republican. 
14th.— Geo. C. McKay 1878-79. Republican. 
15th.— B. N. Learned 1879-80. Republican. 
16th.— M. Dunigan, 1880-81. Democrat. , 
17th.— O. E. Bernecker, 1881-82. Democrat. 



446 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

18th.— E. L. Blanchard, 1882-HJ?. Republican. 
19th.— D. B. Palmer, 1HH3-S4. Republican. 
20th.— Wm. Redford, 18S4-«5. Repu1)lican. 
21st.— H. G. Hosford, 1885. Republican. 

SUPERVISORS ELECTED IN 1886 

It will be noted that the coniini.ssioner system was changed in Janu- 
ary, 1887, to that of township organizations. 
A precinct— E. W. Ohiey. Repuljlican. 
B precinct — M. Dunigan. Democrat. 
C precinct — W. H. Dobson. Democrat. 
D precinct — A. D. Sperry. Republican. 
E precinct— B. C. Ragan. Republican. 
F precinct — W. H. Miner. Democrat. 
G precinct— Wm. Redford. Republican. 
H precinct — Carl Koch. I)emocrat. 
I precinct— Fred Fosler. Democrat. 
J precinct — O. E. Bernecker. Democrat. 
K precinct— J. H. Robertson. Democrat. 
L precinct Adam Seed. Republican. 
M precinct— W. H. Mygatt. Republican. 
N precinct — F. W. Upton. Republican. 

precinct — J. L. Birkey. Democrat. 
P precinct— Henry Rogge. Democrat. 

SUPERVISORS ELECTED IN 1887 

A precinct— J. J. Martin. Democrat. 
B precinct— C. J. Wright. Democrat. 
C precinct— Andrew Schultz. Republican. 
D precinct— A. D. Sperry. Mugwump. 
E precinct — B. C. Ragan. Republican. 
F precinct — Morris Underbill. RepuV)lican. 
G precinct— Chas. Lyon. Republican. 
H precinct- Carl Koch. Democrat. 

1 precinct — D. Dankers. Republican. 

J precinct — O. E. Bernecker. Democrat. 
K precinct— John Florin. Republican. 
L precinct— Adam Seed. Republican. 
M precinct— D. Blanchard. Republican. 
N precinct — Cyrus Weyant. Republican. 
P precinct— Henry Rogge. Democrat. 

SEWARDCITY— TWO MEMBERS 

J. F. Goehner, Republican. 
W. Q. Dickinson, Republican. 

SUPERVISORS ELECTED IN 1888 

A precinct — J. J. Martin. 
B piecinct— C. J. Wright. 
C precinct — Henry Schultz. 



I 

1 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 447 

D precinct — A. D. Sperry. 
E precinct — B. C. Ragan. 
F precinct— Morris Underbill. 
G precinct — C. L. Lyon. 
Seward — J. F. Groehner. 
Sewai'd — Wm. Q. Dickinson. 
H precinct— Carl Koch. 
I precinct — D. Bankers. 
J precinct — O. E. Bernecker. 
K precinct — John A. Florin. 
L precinct — Adam Seed. 
M precinct — D. Blanchard. 
N precinct — Robert Rhea. 

precinct— Cyrus F. Weyant. 
P precinct H. Rogge. 

Changes were made in the board from year to year as follows: 

A precinct— D. L. Francis, 1892-94. 

B precinct— D. D. Remington, 1889-90; Henry Bedford, 1891; C. 
M. Gordon, 1898. 

C precinct— A. VV. Gibb, 1889-92 ; Chris Schall, 1894. 

D precinct— A. W. Shrader, 1888-95. 

E precinct- Peter Hanley, 1889 ; C. V. Remey, 1890 ; J. M. Miller, 
1892; Geo. Gribble, 1898; J. L. Mickelsen, 1894. 

F precinct John Gredon, 1898; J. B. Britt, 1895. 

G precinct— W. L. Pendal, 1889; Julius Schlueter, 1891; W. L.Pen- 
dal, 1892; J. C. Ford, 1894. 

City Seward— W. B. Barrett, 1894-95. 

H precinct— Wm. Grots, 1895. 

1 precinct — 

J precinct— Wm. Alschwede, 1889; W. Taylor, 1890; W. A. Brokaw, 
1893; W. S. Beebe, 1895. 

K precinct— T. H. Penningon, 1889; R. H. Hedson, 1890; John A. 
Florin, 1891 ; J. W. Anstine, 1892 ; Jacob GrafiP, 1894. 

L precinct— Wm. N. McNiel, 1889 ; W. P. Murphy, 1891 ; Wm. 
Reed, 1894; J. W. Hannah, 1895. 

M precinct— Ben. Hunkins, 1891 ; Thos. Tideman, 1894. 

N precinct— J. Mc Carthy. 1891 ; S. S. Atwood, 1895. 

O precinct— F. Haly, 1889, ; John Ganseman, 1891 ; D. Bogart, 1894. 

P precinct— J. H. Thurman, 1889-90 ; J. T. Jones, 1891 ; J. H Thur- 
man, 189'3 ; T. H Bishop, 1895. 

Under the law of 1895 the supervisor districts of the county were 
changed and made to consist of seven districts as follows : 
1st Dist. composed of townships B, C and D 
2nd " " " E and F 

3rd " " City of Seward 

4th " " " A, H and G 

5th " " " I, J and P 



448 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

6th Dist. composed of townshisps L, K and M 
7th " " ■• N and U 

The first board under the law was selected from the elected board 
bj' lot as follows : 

1895 
1st. District — A. W. Sh7-ader. 
2d. District -J. B. Britt. 
3d. District ~W. B. Barrett. 
4th. District — Wm. Grots. 
5th. District— T. H. Bishop. 
6th. Di-strict— T. Tideman. 
7th. District— S. S. Atwood. 

1896 
1st. District — John Dalton. 
2d. District— W. P. Murphy. 
3d. District — W. Q. Dickenson. 
4th. District — Henry Beckman. 
5th. District — J. Swearingen. 
6th. District— J. W. Hannah. 
7th. District— ^Chas. Wertman. 

It appears by the record that J. S. Berkey served part of this term 
in place of Charles Wertman . 

1898 
2d. District— Wm. Kinkade 
4th. District— Wm. Grots 
6th. District— J. W. Hannah. 

1899 
1st. District— John Dalton. 
3d. District— W. Q. Dickenson. 
5th. District— J. Swearingen. 
7th. District — Geo. Campbell. 
1900 

2d. Frank Cross. 

4th. District— William Grots. 

6th. District — Henry Gakee. 

1901 
1st. District— John Dalton. 
3d. District— W. Q. Dickenson. 
5th. District— D. Dankers. 
7th. District — Geo. Camjibell. 

1902 

2d. District— J. R. Lawyer. 
4th. District— M. B. Palmer. 
6th. District. —Oscar Kruton. 



* HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 449 

1903 
1st. District— B. Broack. 
3d. District— W. S. Williams. 
Sth. District— J. S. Dillenbeck. 
6th. District— Wm. Wiillenvvaber, appointed. 
7th. District— Chas. E. Moretield. 
1904 

1st. District — B. Broack. 
2d. District— F. Chain. 
3d. District— W. S. Williams. 
4th. District— M. B. Palmer. 
5th. District— J. S. Dillenbeck. 
6th. District— C. W. Warner. 
7th. District— C. E. Moretield 



OFFICIAL HISTORY OF SEWARD 

The incorporation of Seward as a village occurred in the first days 
of April, 1870. The records are conflicting : in one place they say 
April 2d, and in another they say April 5th. The covinty commissioners 
passed an order as the statute provides declaring the village incorporat- 
ed, and Dr. L. Walker, F. F. Lankins, W. R. Davis, (xeo. Crumb and 
Sam Manley were appointed trustees and O. T. B. Williams attorney 
for the corporation. 

June 5, 1871, we find S. E. Ewing and Wm. Olmstead on the board, 
but can find no record of their election. We also find W. B. Thorpe, 
clerk; L. Parish, marshal; H. A. Lewis, treasurer; H. P. Kennard, as- 
sessor, and Thomas Darnall, attorney. Street commissioner, E. W. 
Clinton. 

May 10, 1872, L.G. Johns, W. H . Tuttle, V. Daniels, Sam Steven- 
son and H. Diers took the oath of office as trustees, and at their first 
meeting O. T. B. Williams was elected clerk, George Whiting, mar- 
shal and I. B. Compton fire warden. O. T. B. Williams was also 
elected assessor. 

March 20, 1873, the council voted an appropriation of fifty dollars 
for a free dinner to a party of Lincoln excursionists. 

May 5, 1873, William Hayes, Vinal Daniels and Sam Stevenson were 
elected trustees. Sam Stevenson was elected chairman of the board on 
the tenth ballot ; L. G. Johns, treasurer. O. T. B.Williams, clerk. J. 
W. McCabe was elected marshal. 

September 22, 1873, R.S. Norval took the census of the town and his 
returns show a population of five hundred and seventy-five. 

September 2, 1873, ordinance No. 28 organizing Seward as a city 
of the second class, was offered by T. L. Norval and adopted, and an 
election was ordered for October 18, 1873, for city officers. At said 
election A. Castle wds elected mayor, W. R. Davis police judge, J. W. 
McCabe marshal, T. L. Norval clerk, V. Daniels city engineer, and W. 



450 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA' 

B. Thorpe, treasurer. Thos. Grrahaiu and A. J. Combs, councilmen in 
1st ward, and Wm. Lease and J. R. Paul in the 2d ward. 

The city council passed their first ordinance January 2, 1874, i)rovid- 
ing for a poll tax. 

February 7th a resolution of inquiry in regard to protection from 
fire was passed in which ^they reijuired of J. N. Edwards that he furn- 
ish information about the cost of a dozen rubber buckets, 48 feet of lad- 
der and some other tools, etc. 

April 7, 1874, the following persons were elected city officers : Thos. 
Graham, mayor; T. J. Hamilton, police jvidge ; S. H. Marshall, city 
engineer ; N. C. Rogers, clerk ; Wm. Wright, marshal ; W. B. Thorpe, 
treasurer; Sam Stevenson and Joel Tishue, councilmen in 1st ward; J. 
M. Strong and Ed. Mclntyre, in the 2nd ward. 

Nov. 23d. city council voted to donate their salary to the city on 
account of hard times. 

Recapitulation of the financial condition of the city since it was 
incorporated 

Warrants drawn to date |1387 52 

Amount warrants canceled |t)74 54 

Amount outstanding to balance 712 98 

Delinquent tax of 1873 122 61 

Delinquent tax list of 1874 559 53 

Total (582 14 

Amount in treasury 106 24 

Total resources |788~38 

Dated March 30, 1875. 

At the April election of 1875 the following persons were elected to 
fill various ottices : Ed. Mclntyre. mayor; S. B, Mills, judge; W. B. 
Thorpe, treasurer; T. L. Norval, clerk; J. 77. Gladwish, marshal; R. 
S. Norval and H. W. Hageman, councilmen in 1st ward ; and H. W. 
Ragan and J. F. Goehner, councilmen for 2ad ward. 

During 1875 the grades of the principal streets were established. 
April 8, 1870, the following persons were declared elected city offi- 
cers; I. B. Sarter, mayor; Thos. Osborne, marshal; F. H. Newton, 
clerk; William Leese, police judge; E. A. Polly, city engineer ; W. B, 
Thorpe, treasurer; James Reed, councilman for 1st ward; J. F. Goeh- 
ner, councilman for 2d ward. Amount of taxes, including licenses 
and fines, during 1876, 13196.39. 

April, 1877, E. Mclntyre was again elected mayor ;' J. D. Edwards, 
clerk ; police judge, O. T. B. Williams ; treasurer, A. J. Callender ; mar- 
shal, Wm. Ashton ; street commissioner, R. McCrosson; councilmen, N. 

C. Rogers and H. W. Ragan. 

And in 1878, T. Norval, mayor ; J. D. Edwards, clerk ; councilmen, 
John Kribbler, S. W. Long, and I. B. Sarter; treasurer, L. G. Johns 
police judge, L. W. Hart. 

In 1879, mayor, E. K. Dunbaugh ; police judge, J. D. Edwards ; 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 451 

clerk, J. L. McPheely ; 'treasurer, W. R. Herrick ; conncilmen, J. S. 
Henderson and T. E. Saunders. 

In 1880, C. W. Barkley, mayor; ,T. D. Edwards, clerk; L. G. Johns, 
treasurer ; police judge, T. L. McClean ; conncilmen, S. R. Douglas, 
L. Walker, R. R. Shick, and J. G. Berdrow. 

In 1881, W. O. Whitcomb, mayor; E. A. Polly, clerk; police judge, 
J. L. McPheely; treasurer, T. E. Saunders; conncilmen, W. E. Chapin, 
J. Tishue and Herman Diers. 

In 1882, W. O. Whitcomb, mayor ; T. E. Saunders, clerk ; treasurer, 
Wm. Leese ; conncilmen, J. S. Henderson and R. E. Dunphy. 

In 1883, Whitcomb was for the third time elected mayor ; clerk, 
A. J. Callender; treasurer, J. N. Edwards; conncilmen, John Mulfinger 
and John Zimmerer. 

In 1884, mayor, W. R. Davis; clerk, C. S. Ailing; treasurer, J. 
N. Edwards ; police ,iudge, Frank P. Pingree ; councilman, Samuel 
Welch and T. E. Saunders. 

In 1885, O. C. Reynolds, mayor ; clerk, C. W. Bain ; treasurer, J. 
N. Edwards; police judge, Louis Stahl ; councilmen, G. A. Merriam 
and J. C. Mulfinger. 

In 1886, Ed. Mclntyre, mayor; clerk, C. W. Bain ; treasurer, J. N. 
Edwards; police judge, I. D. Neihardt; councilmen, J. H. Betzer and 
Peter Goehner. 

In 1887, Ed. Mclntyre, mayor; clerk, G. F. Dickman ; police judge, 
I. D. Neihardt; treasurer, J. N. Edwards; councilmen, Samuel Pence 
and J. C. Mulfinger. 

In 1888, W. B. Barrett, mayor ; C. W. Raymond, clerk ; J. N. Ed- 
wards, treasurer ; John Ireland, councilman 1st ward and, Alex Lange 
and Wm. Rosborough, from 2nd ward. 

In 1889, J. C. Mulfinger. mayor ; A. J. Calender, clerk ; C. S. 
Ailing, treasurer; C. W. Barkley, police judge ; John Stryker, council- 
man from 1st ward and E. P. Phillips councilman from 2d ward. 

In 1890. J. a Mulfinger, mayor; G. F. Dickman, clerk; H. P. 
Brandes, treasurer; E. C. Briggs, city engineer; S. D. Atkins, council- 
man 1st ward ; A. D. Lange, councilman 2d ward. 

In 1891, George W. Fuller, mayor ; G. F. Dickman, clerk ; C. W. 
Barkley, treasurer; J. V. Hill, police judge; W. D. Bowers, city engineer ; 
A. W. Hageinan, councilman 1st ward ; Fred Wooley, councilman 2d ward. 

In 1892, Joel Tishue, mayor; G F. Dickman, clerk; C. VV Barkley, 
treasurer; C. A. Bemis, engineer; A. Y. Davis, councilman 1st ward; 
Wm. Redford, councilman 2d ward. 

In 1893, C. E. Holland, mayor ; G. F. Dickman, clerk ; Silas Figard, 
treasurer ; W. D. Bovvers, engineer ; John Kribbler, councilman 1st 
ward; Carl Boyes, councilman, 2nd ward. 

In 1894, C. E. Holland, mayor; G. F. Dickman, clerk; D. H. Fi- 
ard, treasurer; J. W. Gladwish, police judge to 1904-; W. D. Bowers, 
engineer; A. Y. Davis, councilman 1st ward ; C. U. France, councilman 
2d ward. 

In 1895, John Zimmerer, mayor ; T. H. Wake, clerk, to 1897 ; L. F. 



452 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Shultz, treasurer to 189H ; W. D. Bowers, engineer to 1898 ; W. R. Dick- 
inson, councilman 1st ward; Wm. Redford, councilman 2d ward. 

In 1896, John Zimmerer, mayor; J. P. Dunham, councilman 1st 
ward; John Slonecker, councilman 2d ward. 

In 1897, G. A. Merriam, mayor; T. F. Skeede, councilman 1st 
ward ; F. Pekly, councilman 2d ward. 

In 1898, Wm. Redford, mayor to 1899; E. C. Biggs, engineer; J. P. 
Dunham, councilman 1st ward; J. F. Gerkee, councilman 2nd ward. 

In 1899, D. C. Work, clerk to 1900; H. A. Graff, treasurer to 1904; 
W. H. Walker, engineer to 1904 ; J. F. Skeede. councilman lat ward ; 
C. W. Barkley. councilman 2nd ward. 

In 1900, J. S Harvey, maj-or; H. T. Jones, councilman 1st ward; 
L. E. Ost, councilman, 2nd ward. 

In 1901, J. P. Dunham, mayor to 1902; R. S. Hulschiser, clerk to 
1904, J. F. (xeesen, councilman 1st ward ; M. C. Miller, councilman 
2nd ward. 

In 1902, H. T. Jones, councilman, 1st ward ; L. E. Ost, council- 
man 2nd ward. 

In 1903, J. C. Mulfinger, mayor to 1904. Alfred Hiller, councilman 
1st ward; M. C. Miller, councilman 2nd ward. 

In 1904, J. F. Geesen, councilman 1st ward ; L. E. Ost, council- 
man 2nd ward. 

Assessed valuation of the city, bonded indebtedness, finances, etc. 

The assessed valuation of the city in 1904 was as follows: 

Real estate $159,224 

Personal 223,574 

Total $382, 798 

Tax levy. 19 mills, $727,316 

Total value, $1,913,990. 

Bonded indebtedness, total $50, 000 as follows : 

F. E. and M. V. railroad 6 per cent, $15,000; Waterworks bonds 
43^ per cent, $28,000; Electric light bonds 4 per cent, $7,000. 

Outstanding warrants none. Cash in treas. Feb. 4, 1905, $3600. 
Cash in Co. Treas. not paid out, $800. Total cash assets, $4400. To- 
tal interest per annum on bonds, $2420. 

Against this the city collects in water rents and electric light bills 
(^uite an amount above running expenses. The light plant is rapidly 
accumulating a fund to pay off the electric light bonds and will in the 
early spring cancel $1000. Considering the valuable water plant and 
electric light plant and the remarkably good condition of the streets, 
with not a dollar of floating indebtedness. Notwithstanding over forty 
'thousand doUai's other than borrowed money has l)een expended on 
water supply within the last twelve years, the finances are in splendid 
condition and the city will pay off $1000 of the water bonds this year 
besides make provision to lessen the F. E. & M. V. bonded debt in 1907, 
which is the earliest date that they can be paid. It now looks as if the 
electric light plant will take care of itself and soon be quite a source of 
revenue to the city. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 453 

OFFICIAL HISTORY OF MILFORD 

The village was incorporated in answer to a petition of citizens 
and located on part of section 2. town 9, range 3 east, in Seward coun- 
ty, said tract contained 140 acres. 

The petition was signed by 47 persons, being all the electors of the 
village at that time, which petition was granted by the county com- 
missioners, December 30, 1883. 

First trustees appointed were, John Raymer, J. B. Mitchel, L. D. 
Laune (non-resident) and thrown out, G. W. Hamlin and E. K. Lan- 
des. P. E. Dinsmore was aopointed to take Laune 's place. First 
chairman, J. B. Mitchel and G. W. Hamlin, clerk'. 

In the spring of 1883, a new Ijoard was elected and April 7th the 
board organized by electing C. M Turner, chairman and B. Overholts, 
clerk. Members of this board were : C. M. Turner, C. F. Weyant, 
F. S. John.son, V. M. Cox and E. H. Landes. 

Through the years the following men have been members of the 
boai'd and chairman : C. F. Weyant, Simon Johnson, Ira Grallup, Gr. 
W. Branden, H. Wortendyke, J. B. Mitchel, L. Chatuck. J. Englehouft, 
S. K. Rice, L. H. Smiley, E. K. Brown, John Prosser, J. A. Kinsinger, 
J. Hollingsworth, E. A. Norton. Clerks have been E. H. Landes, A. 
Hiller, seven terms; T. A. Healey, three terms; L. H. Warner, D. T. 
Todd, B Overholts, eight terms. 

The assessment of 1904 was $60,631.00. 



OUR BOYS AND GIRLS 

Seward and Seward county boys and girls by the hun- 
dred have swarmed out into the world to dare and to do! 
We are proud of our boys and girls that have been trained 
here, when we realize that they are to be found, here and 
there, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, struggling in the 
great fields of human endeavor. From here westward as 
far as Manilla you will find our boys and girls in every lo- 
cality and as a rule they are no common scrubs. They are 
excellent farmers, mechanics, doctors, lawyers, preach- 
ers, teachers, artists, electricians, merchants, engineers, 
soldiers, trained nurses, skilled painters and statesmen, oc- 
cupying high and honorable positions in the great western 
world. Seward county may be proud of them for usually 
they are a success and reflect much credit upon the old home 
place. It is worth much to be a native of this grand home 
place that has given the world so many worthy sons and 
daughters, that have gone forth into the great fields of use- 



454 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

fulness. Boys and girls, we remember hundreds of you and 
we are so glad to pay this little tribute to you because we 
know you deserve it. We cannot name you, for should we 
name a hundred, there would be hundreds more that could 
justly feel slighted. But we say God speed you all. 



SMILES OF HEAVEN 

"The smiles of Heaven seem to be centered upon 'our 
loved Nebraska' this blessed year, 1905. Oh! how glad we 
are to tell the people that shall come after us of these days 
of wonderful prosperity. 'Lift up your heads and rejoice 
all ye people.' Our fields, with the burden of the grand 
harvest, have a new beauty to all beholders. Our winter 
wheat crop is phenomenal ranging from twenty to forty 
bushels per acre of grain weighing from sixty to sixty-four 
pounds to the bushel. Tne oat crop is just as good. The 
hay crop is par excellent, so also are all root crops, potatoes, 
beets, etc., and at this writing, August 11, 'our king' corn 
promises a wonderful yield. The splendid rain and beautiful 
sunshine are putting the finishing touches upon the vast 
fields of our great state. The general health of the people 
is good. Our herds of stock are free from disease and are 
bringing good prices. 

"Now dear reader, you will allow me to say in conclu- 
sion: It has been my fortune to live seventy-two years and 
I have been fairly conversant with the conditions of the peo- 
ple in every part of our great republic, from my childhood 
to the present, and it is our candid judgment that the peo- 
ple of Nebraska are as a whole the most universally pros- 
perous of any people of any time or place in my life time, 
and we believe of any place or age of the world, from the 
glad hour when the stars first sang together the anthems of 
praise. Oh! what a grand thing it is to live in this splendid 
age and in this good land overflowing with milk and honey. 
God help us to be grateful and render to Him all the praise 
for His wonderful blessings." 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 455 

TO MY PATRONS AND FRIENDS 

In bringint>- my work to a close, I wish to express my 
heartfelt thanks to a great host of friends not only in Se- 
ward county but throughout Nebraska and other states for 
the kind interest manifested in words of cheer and encour- 
agement. This has been a great help to me. My work has 
been pleasant. I wish to express my thanks to the press of 
the county and also the state press, and especially the State 
Journal for the many favors extended. The state and 
county officers are also entitled to kind remembrances as 
they have extended to me many courtesies. 

We would remember with gratitude the printing house 
of Jason L. Claflin, for the beautiful work they have done 
and where we have received from the beginning, every cour- 
tesy from all connected with the office from devil, composit- 
ors, pressman, foreman and proprietor. Then we would re- 
member the folks at the bindary, Messrs. Gillespie & 
Phillips, at 1524 O St., who have taken such pains to do 
even a better job than the contract called for. We are sure 
our patrons will appreciate the mechanical work of the book 
in every department of the work. 

But above all are my most grateful thanks due our 
Heavenly Friend and Benefactor that has prolonged my life 
and kept me in such good health and given me strength to 
complete the work and to- him shall be all honor and praise 
while we live. Now in conclusion, we would ask the Bene- 
diction of Heaven upon all the people of our good county 
and upon every home in all our great commonwealth. 



PART TAYO 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



To understand our history we should know the people, and we take 
delight in introducing to the reader representative people from the 
ground up : the plow boy and the merchant, the man that carries the 
hod and the man of capital. This volume, written of the people and for 
the people, knows no distinction. Any man, woman or child that has 
helped to build Seward county was entitled to honorable mention and 
if they are not noticed here it is no fault of the author. 

We are proud of the grand array of men and women whose lives 
have been devoted to the development of the wilderness (wild and 
drear) until it is now one of the garden spots of our great country. 

They are, as a whole, a noble band of men and women. Please read 
every one of these sketches and you will find much to inspire you to 
grander achiexements in life. 



AARON ANDERSON 

Among the everlasting hills of the Old Keystone state at Newberg 
in Huntington County, the boy first saw the light, March r2th, 1843, 
where he grew to manhood, where he had the usual experience of a 
boy in that rough region, piling and burning brush, navigating a stone 
boat, etc. He found the way to Nebraska in 1867, March 23, and 
located in "F" Precinct among the first, and homesteaded the west 
half of southwest quarter of section twelve, and in time added to the 
home by purchasing three eighties. 

In 1873, March 8, he had won the hand and heart of Miss Susie 
McFeely, a young teacher that found the way with her parents to the 
frontier. She was born in the city of iron and steel, with clouds of 
smoke (Pittsburg), July 15th, 1851. There were born to them four 
children, viz: Thomas E., Annie McFeely, died April 3, 1877. Eva 
V. died March 21, 1888, and Arthur. Mr. Anderson lived on 
the homestead thirty -five years. In 1887 he took a fit of western fever 
and moved to Araphaho County, Colorado. He remained there two 
years and then returned to his first home in Seward County where 
he remained until he was called home on March 1st, 1904, leaving 
his wife and two sons to mourn his loss. He was brought up in 
the faith of the Church of God. 



2 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Mrs. Anderson, the elder daughter of Isaac McFeelj-, came to Ne- 
braska in 1870. Tttey settled in "F" Precinct on a homestead. Susie 
began her Nebraska career as a pioneer teacher in three different dis- 
tricts of the county. Her fir.st two terms were in district No. 11 known 
as the Imlay district, and was employed by the writer as director. We 
can testify that Susie was a good teacher. The patrons of the school 
w^ere Wm. Imlay, D. H. Figard, J. F. Duncan and W. W. Cox. Her 
next school was the Dr. Evans school. It was their first term. This 
was seven miles south of Seward. In the mean time Mr. McFeely 
with the co-operation of Geo. B. France, county superintendent, suc- 
ceeded in getting district No. 37 organized, embracing a vast stretch 
of wilderness reaching to the York County line. Susie was the first 
teacher and as the school house was not yet completed the first term 
.was taught in the sod house of Mr. Grant. The school board was Isaac 
E. McFeely, Lafayette Welden and ]\Ir. Larson. Children of that 
school were Wm. Calder, Frank Phelps, Wm. Baljcock, Lyman Bab- 
cock, John Larson, George Larson, Moses Wheeler, Eunice Larson, Dora 
Calder, Ada Weldon, Alice Weldon, Celia and Ida Tiittle, Herbert 
Tuttle, Ida McFeely, Laura B. McFeely and S. Wheeler. Miss Sarah 
Bushnell was the next teacher. That noble pioneer teacher has been 
dead many years. With her two sons she continues to reside on the 
homestead and at this writing they are building a new farm house. 

CALS'IN ANDERSON 
Was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, January 3, 1854. Came 
to Seward County in 1867, and worked on the farm with his father dur- 
ing boyhood. Married to Miss Sarah E. Ford in 1882. Have two chil- 
dren, Walter W. and Albert S., both yet at home. Mr. Anderson is a 
painter by trade and is a very worthy citizen. An active member of 
the U. B. Church. Is a degree member of the A. O. U. W. , and the 
degree of Honor. 

HARRISON R. ANDERSON 
A carpenter and builder that came to Seward County when a young 
boy in old pioneer days. Was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, 
May 19, ISHd. The old folks Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Anderson came to 
Seward and settled two miles west of the City in the summer of 1867. 
Here Harrison grew uj), and had the usual experiences of a pioneer 
boy. He chased jack rablnts, plowed corn and went to school. Married 
Miss Carrie Hughes. September 16, 18()8. She was born in Fulton 
County, Illinois, and came to Seward in childhood. They are parents 
of seven children, viz., Chesley M., Lawrence, now dead, Olive M. , 
Claud, Alma and Alice all at home. Mr. Anderson is a good car- 
penter and worthy citizen. 

(GEORGE W. ANDERSON 
One of the old soldier boys that heard the drum beat in the time of 
war and rushed to the rescue, was born April 5, 1837, in Bedford 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 3 

County, Pennsylvania. , where he remained until he enlisted. Married 
to Miss Anna R. Kes.selring, March 21, 1861, in Huntington County, 
Pennsylvania. She was born in Fulton County, Pennsylvaia, Febru- 
ary 5, 1844. They were the parents of fifteen children, twelve of 
whom are living. Their names are as follows: McLellan, Lorenzo B. , 
Sadie O. died in infancy ; Emma, now Mrs. F. Ashton, Edward died at 
eight, Florence also died in infancy, Magie E. , now Mrs. B. Prine, 
Bertha B. , now Mrs. J. W. Cox, Harry W. , Ida M. , Laura E. , William, 
Alfred, Nellie and Rufns. 

The family came to Seward County, February, 1874, and settled on 
section thirty, "G" Precinct. Mr. Anderson enlisted in Co. F, 56 
Pennsylvania Vol. Infantry, September 1, 1864. 

His scene of operation was in the Potomac Valley, and was at 
second battle of Hatchie run South side Railroad, Five Forks, Belfield 
raid and at Lee's surrender. 

Mr. Anderson died, January 24. UH»4. The U. B. Church at Seward 
was the family church home. Mr. Anderson was a very worthy and 
vahiable citizen. 

The widow yet resides on the old farm that they occupied when 
they first came to the county. 

McLELLAN C. ANDERSON 

Was born among the stumps and stone fences of Fulton County, 
Pennsylvania, Janu ary 14, 1862, where he was an engineer on a stone 
boat iintil he was twelve, when he tried the western trail and found 
Seward County in 1874 and learned to farm where it is both an honor 
and a pleasure to be a farmer boy. 

After awhile Mac found his best girl, Miss Mary Botts, and they 
were married May 10, 1885. She was an Illinois girl born in Mc- 
Dounah County, June 4, 1862. They were married at Seward. They 
have four children, viz: Ethel L., George E. , Ray A., and Clara May. 
ISIr. Anderson is a carpenter and builder and we expect that more than 
a hundred buildings in the city and country have sprung into being 
under hi.s guiding hand. He is a member of the M. W. A. 

J. TEMPLETON ANDERSON 

One among the oldest established merchants of Seward. Was born 
in Guernsey, Ohio, October 20, 1849. Don't know .iiist how he found 
the western trail when so young, but at five we find the lad in the wilds 
of Iowa, where he grew to manhood, commencing his education in the 
log cabin school houses of that frontier. 

In 1873, April 10, he married Miss Electa B. Bean, a Pennsylvania 
girl that came to Iowa in her youth. Seven children were born to 
them (five now living), viz: Mertie E. , now Mrs. F. P. Henderson, 
Mary H., Florence M., Lucretia T. , now dead; Gray and F. Paul. 

Came to Seward in 1880, and was for a time employed in Adler's 



4 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Dry Good House. In IHHB helped to found the grocery house to which 
in later years he became sole proprietor. 

Mr. Anderson is now one of the leading and prosperous merchants 
of our City. Is at this time a member or our Boar 1 of Education and 
is its Chaii'man. Is a leading member ot the Presbyterian Church, a 
member of the A. O. U. W. , and a wide awake, energetic and enter- 
prising citizen. 

BOSS P. ANDERSON 

Was an Ohio boy that strayed west in his youth under the advise of 
Greeley and landed in Warren County, Iowa, where he grew to man- 
hood, when he again struck the trail that led to Seward. Ross was 
born in Guei'nsey County, May 4, 1854 In 1881 've find the young law 
student fresh from school in the little new town and gazing upon the 
boundless prairie. His first clients were the school children of the An- 
derson district, where he learned that generation of youngsters the 
"idea how to shoot. " Then he stuck up his shingle as attorney. Two 
years later, September 9, 1883, he was mairied to Lydia A. Boyd at 
Washington, lovva. Mrs. Anderson was born at York, Pennsylvania, 
January (i, 1859. Two children came to brighten their home. Elizabeth 
W. and Russell B. , both at home. Miss Elizabeth is now a teacher in 
our city schools. 

Mr. Anderson has had an honorable part in the official history of 
Seward County where he has served six terms or twelve years, as county 
attorney. In his legal career he has had a hand in many important 
cases. As an advocate of republican principles his well timed speeches 
have been heard on everj- political stump of the county for the last 
twenty years. 

He is a member of the I. O. O. F., M. W. A. and A. O. U. W. 
Church home is with the Congregational people. Mr. Anderson was a 
graduate of Simpson Centenary College, Indianola, Iowa. 

LEWIS ANDERSON 

One of the oldest settlers, who came to Seward before Seward was 
born. Settled on his homestead .just west of the city in the spring of 
1866, and knows all about the ups and downs of fi ontier life just about 
as well as anybody. 

He was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1884, April 15. 
Married to Miss Sarah A. Edwards of Huntington County, Pennsylvania, 
April 7, 1858. Moved to Fulton County, Illinois, in 1864 and remained 
there until he took a second attack of western fever, when he struck for 
Nebraska. There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Anderson seven children. 
Edison and Lewis both died in early childhood. Susan, who became 
Mrs. Norman Smith, died in 1880. Wilson, who had bei»n a cripple for 
many years, died in 1887. Lizzie, now Mrs. John Metz of Seward; 
Clara, now Mrs. E. A. Butler of Ansley, Nebraska, and Bell of the dry 
goods and millinery house of Seward. Mr. Anderson joined the I. O. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 5 

O. F. the day he was twenty-one years old and has always taken a great 
interest in the order. 

Mrs. Anderson was long a member of the U. B. Church and was a 
most worthy Christian lady. She died, December 28. 1899. 




Barn of Dr. J. S. Anderson 



DR. JOHN S. ANDERSON. 

Came within an ace of being a Seward County boy and we are 
going to claim him, as he came to the wilderness in his fifth year in 
1867. 

The lad was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania in 1862, Mai-ch 
10. Worked on the farm and received his ediication in the country 
schools, but in his mind this did not iill the bill. So in his early man- 
hood he hied away to Chicago and took a full course of study in the 
Veterinary College and graduated with honors. But still there was 
more to learn so he crossed the border and at Toronto, Canada, he grad- 
uated in the Veterinaiy Dental School, yet he was not quite satisfied, so 
he took a course in Miles' School of Special Surgery at Charleston, Ill- 
inois in 1894. Then he came to Seward, his old home, to try his hand at 
the work for which he had been so long in tiaining. Is a marked snccess 
in his profession and soon attracted wide attention and his field of 
usefulness widened. 



6 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

He was appointed twice as State Veterinary Surgeon, and is now 
frequently called to distant points to assist in the diagnosis of the more 
difficult diseases of stock. His reputation far exceeds the bovindaries of 
his state, and that reputation has been fairly and squarely earned. 

The Doctor married one of our estimable young Seward girls, Miss 
Myrtle Boyes, March 3, 1902. Mrs. Anderson was born, raised and edu- 
cated at Seward, and that means that her opportunities were good, and 
she has improved them. 

The Doctor has built one of the finest barns in the state for his busi- 
ness and has it thoroughly equipped with all modern appliances. 




William Ahlsch^vede and wife 



WILLIAM AHLSCHWEDE. 

Was a German born boy that crossed the great water when but four 
years old. His parents settled in Allen County, Indiana, near Fort 
Wayne, where William gi-ew up. William was born June 12, 1844. 

In 1878, February 24, Mr. Ahlschwede married Miss Eva Petzold in 
Allen County, Indiana. She was born January 6, 1859, in Allen County. 
They have nine children as follows: Herman F., George F. , William H. 
Mary K., now Mrs. F. Freeman, Emma, Martin C, Elizabeth, Alma 
and Elsie. 

Mr. Ahlschwede came to Seward County in May. 1871, and settled at 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 7 

the present home on Section 27, "J" Town, where he has improved the 
farm until it is an elegant home place with every convenience. He is 
a farmer of high rank and a man of energy und great value to his 
neighborhood. Church home is with the Lutherans in which lie takes 
great interest. 

LAWRENCE R. ALPIN 

In the land of muddy roads and hazelbiush at Augusta, Illinois, 
Lawrence was born, March 24, 1875b, ut had to come to Nebraska to be 
raised. Away out at Ansley, Nebraska, he ran across Miss Ada Kindree 
and in due time he captured her in INIarch ly'Jlj. She was a Seward County 
girl that had strayed away from Cordovia. She was born in 1878. 
They have one little girl, Fern. Mr. Alpin came to Utica in September, 
19U0, and purchased the Sun plant of Mrs. W. D. Compton, and most of 
the time since that has been raising "Suns" that shine all over the 
prairies around Utica. Long may the "Sun of Utica" under his guid- 
ing hand "dispense a serener light" to brigthen the pathway of the 
peojjle. Mr. Alpin is a member of the I. O. O. F. and the Royal High- 
landers. 

HERMAN F. AHLSCHWEDE 

On the old Ahlschwede farm a mile down the river from Ruby, 
Herman was born June 3, 1879. He spent his youth helping to develop 
the farm of his father, and after a while h°: and Miss Elizabeth Birky, 
a neighbor girl, concluded a splendid bargain and they were married 
February 16, 1904. She was born in Livingston County. Illinois, Febru- 
ary 1(5, 1880, and came with her parents to Seward County when a 
young girl. 

These young people have a bright future open liefore them. He is 
a farmer. They are niembers of the Lutheran Church. 

EARL R. ANSTINE 

An Iowa boy, born in Mills County, October 23, 1880. The folks 
brought Earl to Tamora when two years old, so he is a boy of our 
prairie. Worked on the farm and attended the country schools. Mar- 
ried Miss Ethel Dapin, a Sew^ard burn girl, November 7, 1900. Edu- 
cated in the city schools. Two children have come to bless the home, 
Lawrence A. and Irene. 

Mr. Anstine is a thrifty young farmer. 

CHARLES D. ALEXANDER 

Was another of those New York l)o\s that tired of navigating a stone 
boat among the rocky fields and grubbing blackl)erry briars out of the 
fence corners. Charley was born in the town of Sanford in Broome 
County. October 12, 1844. At twelve he caught sight of the star of 
promise and found the western trail which led him to Iowa County, 



8 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Wisconsin, and there among the badgers he grew up and was so fortu- 
nate as to get acquainted with Miss Albina Stevens and they married, 
October 18, 18(59, in luwa County, town of Miflin, her native place. 
She was born April 23, 1847. 

Four children came to brighten their home ; Lawrence S. , Horace 
G. , Eliza, now Mrs. D. C. Showalter, Amy, now Mrs. L. L. Emerson. 
The family came to Seward County Angnst 28, 1883, and settled in "F" 
Precinct on Section 32. Mr. Alexander is a member of the A. F. and 
A. M. 

Mr. Alexander did not forget to go to the war. He heard the bugle 
call and enlisted in the 19th Wisconsin infantry, January 6, 1862. 

He is a wide awake citizen and has helped in every way to develop 
his county and his village. He has been postmaster of TMmora (or 
many years. 

LAUREN S. ALEXANDER 

A young merchant of Tamora who has grown from his youth among 
us, was born in Iowa County, Wisconsin, October 26, 1870. At thirteen 
he came witn his parents to the prairie home near where Tamora now 
stands. Here Lauren had the usual experiences of boys on the frontier. 
When not at school, he worked on his father's farm, chased cattle, 
hunted prairie chickens and rabbits. 

In 1894, November 13, he and Miss Jennie Francis were married at 
Seward. She is a native of the Hoosier State, born in Laporte County. 
October 11, 1875 One child was born to them but it died in early in- 
fancy. 

Mr. Alexander came to the county in August, 1883. The parental 
home was in "F" Precinct. He has a membership in the A. F. and A. 
M. What is very striking about the career of this young lad is his 
phenominal success as a merchant. Five years ago, he opened a little 
store with about a wheelbarrow load of goods and commenced his mer- 
cantile career. His business has grown to vast proportions. He now 
has a store worthy of a place in a city. His sales for the current year 
exceed twenty thousand dollars. It is truly a surprise that in .so small 
a village, such a vast amount of Imsiness could be transacted by so 
young a merchant. 

DR. FREDERICK M. ANDRUS 

Another Nebraska boy that cut a figure in the world. Born among 
the everlasting hills at Plattsmouth, July 29, 1872. In his youth he 
climbed hills, rolled stones down just to see them tumble down the steep 
hillsides, and went to school at the high school. He then went to the 
Lincoln Medical College and graduated with honors in the class of 1900. 
Took post-graduate courses at Chicago in surgery with Dr. Pratt and 
also at West-side Surgical Institute. Dr. Andrus is now Professor in 
Physical Diagnosis at the Lincoln Medical College. August 27, 1898, 
he closed a bargain (and a good one too) with Miss Emma Ladd, of 



I 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



9 



Weeping Water, Cass County. She is a full lilood Nebraskan, born June 
27, 1878, right in sight of those piles of white rocks at Weeping Water 
falls. 

The doctor came to Pleasant Dale, March 25,1900 and stuck out his 
shingle. He now has a large and growing practice, owns a hospital and 
rides in an automobile. 

The church home of the familj' is with the Methodists. He is a 
member of the A. F. and A. M., of the K. O. T. M., the M. W. A. and 
is examining ph^'sician for each of the above orders. He is one of our 
growing doctors. 





10 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

EDWARD C. ARCHER 

Was one among the noble band of early pioneers that penetrated 
the great wilderness in the northwestern part of the county in 1869. 
Edward wasboin July 7, 184(3, in Harrison County, Virginia. His 
parents saw bright light in the great west when Edward was a babe and 
tound their way to Illinois, but a little later made their home in Grant 
County, Wisconsin, where they remained till their removal in 18(59 to 
Sew.ird Gmnty where they homesteaded in Section 8 in "C" Precinct. 

In his y(mng manhood, Edward enlisted in Company C, 2nd Wis- 
consin Cavalry, but as the war was so near over the company did not get 
to smell much burnt powder. 

He also homesteaded on the sume section and opened a farm. No- 
vember 2(j, 1872, Mr. Archer married Miss Mary A. Compton at Seward. 
There were born to them ten children as follows: Sarah E. , died in 
childhood, Maud, Nettie F. , late wife of John Slenecker. , Frank O. , 
died in childhood, Jessie M. , now Mrs. A. W. Noxen, Daisy D. , now^ 
Mrs. L. K. Varner, Jnlia W., now Mrs. M. H. Norwood, Curtis E. , 
Edna W. and Arthur. 

Mrs. Archer was born September 1, 1849, in Indiana and died at the 
family home near Staplehurst, April 2, 1901. 

Mr. Archer is a successful and progressive farmer. Is a member of 
the United Workman and the M. W. A. 

FREDERICK J. AHLSCHWEDE 
Another Nebraska born boy. This time Beatrice claims the j^rize. 
Fred was born September ;5, 1871), but came to Seward County near 
Milford when two and a half years old. Susi)cct the old folks had some 
thing to do with his coming at so early an age. Fred worked on his 
father's farm and performed his duty so well that Uncle Jetf Cox raised 
no objections and one bright June day aboiit the 8rd. 19(U5, Fred led Miss 
Pearl E. Cox to the marriage altar, at her father's home. Pearl was a 
Seward County pearl, born on our soil, July 3, 1885. They are the 
proud parents of one bright baby boy, Ernest D. The young people 
now live on the Wortendyke farm near Ruby. He is a young farmer. 
The Presbyterian Church is their church home. 

HON. SILAS. S. ATWOOD 

Another of the old soldier boys who came to find a home in the old 
times, was born in Prel)le County, Ohio, in 1842, March 12. His parents 
moved to Washington, Iowa, in 1844. There Silas grew to manhood and 
when he heard his country's call to arms, he straightway enlisted in 
Company K, 13th Iowa Volunteer infantry and served three years and 
eiirht months. Was in the conflicts at Shilo, Corinth, Vicksburg siege 
and was near there at the time of the surrender. Was with Sherman 
from Atlanta to the sea, and from Savannah to Washington. Was mus- 
tered out at Louisville, Kentucky, in July 18(55. Located on a home- 
stead two and a half miles west of Milford in 1807, and had a part in 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 11 

the county seat war. He t-aine throngh both vvarfs without a scratch. 
Helped to organize Major Keenan Post No. 187, Gr. A. R. and was once 
its commander. Was at one time town treasurer and once supervisor 
from his town. Elected to the Lower House in 15)02, and is at this writ- 
ing candidate on the republican ticket for re election. 

Mr. Atwood is a staunch republican, and helps the party greatly by 
his genial natuie and good judgment. Mr. Atwood has been a farmer 
all his Nebraska days and did his fl^ll share in developing this new land 
and making it what it is today, such a garden spot. 

Mr.' Atwood sought and found a splendid wife in the person of Miss 
Dorotha E. Brown, daughter of Samuel Brown, one of the pioneers at 
Milford. They were married in IHiiO. To them have been born four 
children: Delia A., Gilbert C'. , Amy L. and Cathie P., all yet with the 
parents. 

Mrs. Atwood is a member of the M. E. Church at Beaver Crossing. 
Mr. Atwood did all he hoaorably could for his town, Milford, at the 
time of the county-seat contest, and helped to fight its battles through 
bravely just like any patriotic citizen should do, but when the war was 
over, then he laid down his arms and thence forward he was for Seward 
County and all her interests. 

He made an excellent representative and Is very i)oj)ular with his 
party. He was elected in November 1U04 by a good majority. 

CHARLES H. ADAMS 

A good old fashioned democrat rhat was elected three times Sheriff 
of Seward County although it is a republican county. Was born June 
28, 1848, in Cincinnati, Ohio. When the drum beat to arms, Charley 
enlisted in 18(ii. Was in the first battle at Bullrun and we expect he 
made a bully- run. Was under the command of Alex McDowel McCook. 
Was at Stone River and other battles. In 1868 we find him in Beauro 
Co., 111., where Sept. 20, 1873, he married Miss Cary M. Crownover. 

She was born in Henderson Co., Ill , Sept. 20, 1850. 

They have three chrildren, viz: Iva W. , now Mrs. E. A. Moore; 
Glenn C. and Clyde O. 

Mr.Adams came to the county in 1888 and located in"0'" precinct. 
First elected sheriff in 1885. 

.Appointed Register of U. S. Land Office in 1894 at Broken Bow and 
served four years. Mr. Adams has large landed interest yet in Seward 
county althoiigh he at present resides in Lincoln. Church home is with 
the Presbyterians. 

MISS MARY STANDISH BANKS. 

This distinguished teacher came to Pleasant Dale in her early youth 
and has seen much of pioneer life. 

Born at Salem, Indiana, and with her widowed mother came to 
Seward County in 1880, where the family purchased railroad land. Here 
on the farm Mary grew to womanhood. She completed her high school 



12 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

education under Processor Buikett at Milford. Then she graduated at 
the Peru Normal school. When she commenced her long and successful 
career as a teacher, we find her at the head of the grammar department, 
where she remained for two years. Then she pursued the scientific 
course at the State University. Next, she was two years principal of 
the Trumbull Schools. Then in the grammar schools at Uma Colorado 
for two years, also at Milford two years, and then in her home district 
for two years on. account' of the poor health of her mother. In 1902 she 
opened a millinery store at Milford where she has had great success. 

She is an earnest and faithful worker in the M. E. Church and 
Sabbath school. She became connected with the W. C. T. U. at Utica 
and was a most efficient member. 

The widowed and aged mother resides on the old farm. Mary saved 
of her own earnings to complete her education, buy and pay for forty 
acres of valuable land and also to open her nice store. Now Mrs. M. S 
Raw Is. 

VOLNEY BRANT 

Born among the stony hills of Erie County, N. Y. , October 8, 1841. 
He took the western trail in early boyhood and landed at Whitewater, 
Wisconsin, where he grew to manhood. 

In 1801, September 20, Mr. Brant enlisted in the 13th Wisconsin 
Volunteer Infantry, and was discharged November 20, 1864. In 1866 
Mr. Brant crossed the plains to Salt Lake, from there he went to Idaho 
and engaged in mining and stock raising for sixteen years. 

In 1883, January 1. he married Miss Addie Johnson Ambrose, a 
Whitewater lady. Four children were boin to them, two of which are 
now living: Ray, born August 13, 1885. and Hazeldell, born June 3, 
1891. 

The young people came to "L" precinct in March, 1883, and located 
on a farm. In 1884, he rented the farm and was in business at Utica 
in the grain trade with Mr. Boone. 

He was Vice President of the Utica Bank — in 1883 he went to Louis- 
iana and was not quite satisfied. So in 1898 he went to Kalkaska, 
Michigan, where he is in business, but we expect him back to Seward 
County soon, where a man can make some headway. We are ready to 
welcome him. 

Mr. Brant has his standing with the G. A. R. and the I. O. O. F. 

GEOaCxE BAUER, JR. 

A German lad born in Louisa County, Iowa. January 11. 1872. Came 
to Seward County in 1875 and settled just east of Seward, whei"e he 
grew to manhood as a farmer boy. When George got old enough, he 
wooed and won Miss Mary Felines. Apirl 18, 1895. She was born at 
Minar, Illinois, January 21, 1873. They have four little folks : George 
H , Katherine L. N., Annie N. and Edward C. 

Mr. Bauer now lives a mile south of Goehner in "K" precinct. 
Church home is \vith the Evangelical people. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 13 

CHARLES C. BACON 

Wisconsin boy, born at Fondulac, January 24, 186H. and at ten years 
of age he found his way to Nebraska. Spent his youth in Hamilton 
County, but somehow there was an attractive lode stone at Milford and 
we find him a resident of Seward County in 1900. October 10, 1900, he 
captured one of our Seward County girls, Miss Diantha Wortendyke of 
Milford, who was to the manor born daughter of Judge Henry Worten- 
dyke. Born March 15, 1872. They now have two children. May E. 
and John W. 

They own a beautiful farm near Ruby. Mr. Bacon takes great 
interest in fine pigs and has a very complete pig house in connection 
with other good improvements. Was unfortunate in losing an arm some 
years ago while in the employ of the R. K. Comi)any. He is quite a 
rustler. 

Is a member of the republican county central committee and throws 
his whole soul into the work. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and 
of the Knights of Labor, also of the American Federation of Labor. 

REV. CHRISTIAN BEK 

A boy raised in Germany, born July 5,. 1829, at Aichelberg, whei'e 
he remained until twenty- six, when he decided to breathe the purer 
and freer air of America. He began his ministry at twenty-five and 
nas now upheld the banner of the Cross full fifty years. 

He married Miss R. Muenzenmaier at Herman, Missouri, Septem- 
ber 13, 1857. She was a German girl, born February 20, 18;}0, and died 
Maj' 6, 1878. There were born to them eight childien : Lydia, now 
Mrs. E. Blanchard, Theophalus, Chistian, now dead, Charles, Paul, 
Emma, now dead, Theodore and Fred. Mr. Bek married in 1874, April 
30, to Miss Pauline Maier at St. Louis, Missouri. She -was also a Ger- 
man girl born July 16, 1843. There were born to them six children: 
Pauline, Jane, Christian, John, Houth and Dora. 

Rev. Bek came to Seward County in October 1877 and locateol on a 
farm in "B" precinct, biit has for some years resided in Seward. 

He organized the Evangelical church at Seward. 

WINDFIELD S. BEEBE 

Was born in Grant County, Wisconsin. October 4, 1848, and there 
spent his early childhood days. In 1862 the home was made in Johnson 
County, Iowa, until he had an attack of Nebraska fever which brought 
him to Seward County in 1880. A little later he pre-empted land in 
Hamilton County but soon proved up and returned to his first love, and 
located on a farm in "J" precinct where he still resides. 

While in Iowa, he became acquainted with the daughter of Julius 
G. Brown of Johnson County and in 1873 he found an excuse to return 
to Iowa and made Miss Annette his bride, on February 2 (Ground-hog 
day) and he returned home in triumph with her. She was a native of 



14 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEARASKA 

Johnson County where she was educated. Born August 23, 1847. She 
being the older, it was said that she took Windfield to raise. It is un- 
derstood that she performed her task pretty well. They have four 
children: Jennie L., now Mis. Phil Maner, Harriet, Mildred E. and 
Jared (J. , all at home. 

Mr. Beebe is a member of the I. O. O. F. Was elected in 1895 sup- 
ervisor for "J" precinct. He is an ardent populist in politics. Is a 
prosperous farmer and has a nice home. 

JABES BERRY 

Was an English born lad of four years when his parents crossed the 
briny deep and settled in Illinois. He was born November?, 18G2. He 
came to "J" precinct in 1S81. Here Jabes found Mary, the daughter 
of our old pioneer friend, Job Reynolds, and after due consideration, 
they were married September 1), 1800. She was born November 4, 1861, 
in Indiana and came to Seward County in 1868. so she is a pioneer set- 
tler. They have three children: Naomi F. , Arthur J. and Clee W. 

Mr. Berry was raised a farmer boy and sticks to his trade like a 
good fellow. He belongs to the I. O. O. F. ana the M. W. A. 

HIRAM L. BOYES 

Just at the opening of the war of 1812, Mr. Boyes was born, Janu- 
ary 9, 1812 at Hillsborough, New Hamphhire. His parents were of a 
peculiar mixture. Scotish, Irish and French. In 181o, his father moved 
to CataruugUH County, New York, where the lad grew to manhood 
among the rocks and hills of that rugged region. 

In 1886, the young man strayed away to Erie County and there met 
Miss Esther L. Hibard and married her. The young people had heard 
of the glorious west, and straightway made their way to the wilds of 
Michigan and settled in St. Joseph County in 1844. In 1849 Mr. Boyes 
had an attack of the gold fever and made his way to California around 
Cape Horn in a sailing vessel. Spent four years in the mines. Upon 
his return home they moved to Story County, Iowa, and were among the 
first to penetrate that new region. Here the family resided until their 
removal to Seward in 1867. Thus we see that Mr. Boyes life was large- 
ly that of a frontiers-man. He helped to redeem four different new 
lands and to bring them up from the wild wildernesses which he found 
to be rich and prosperous communities, besides spending four years 
in the mountains of California. 

At Seward, Mr. Boyes and family found .iust the place the}' had so 
long looked for, a goodly land where he was willing to live and die. 
He first built a saw mill which proved a great blessing to the jieople of 
this vallej'. In 1869 they erected the Banner Mills and commenced to 
grind grain. The mill was a small affair but it dirt good work and was 
highly appreciated by the people. The full history of the mill is given 
in other pages of this book. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 15 

Mr. Boyes early became interested in the schools of Seward and was 
foi years a member of the school board. He was a wide-awake and 
enterprising citizen. He labored long and hard in the interest of the 
city and county. His son Carlos became interested and identified with 
the mill when its foundations were laid, although he was but a boy, 
and he has been closely identified with it to the present. 

There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Boyes eight children, seven yet 
living as follows : George, Harrison, Carlos, Martha, now Mr.s. O. K. 
Olmstead of Orleans, Nebraska, Hiram of Oklahoma, Ethel, now Mrs. 
Doane Tremain of Perry, Oklahoma and Thomas, now of Seward. 

Mrs. Boyes died some years ago. Mr. Boyes died at the family 
home June 19, 1900, at the advanced age ot eigthy-eight years and will 
long be remembered as a kind neighboi- and a very worthy and valuable 
citizen. 

HARRY H. BRADLEY' 

The first colored boy born in Seward was born IMarch 12, 1875. 
Was educated in the city schools. Harry has had a wide experience as 
a traveler. He has visited London. Glasgow, Liverpool and Paris at 
the World s Exposition. Has held many ])laces of trust at the great 
expositions at Chicago, Buffalo, Omaha and St. Louis. Was chief stew- 
ard of the Nebraska sod house at Buffalo. He had charge of the roller- 
chair stoiage house of the Clarkson Concession Company. He was also 
an exposition guide. 

Harry has through all his eventful career earned the respect of the 
people wherever employed and stands high in the. e.stimation of the 
good people of Seward. 

HENRY M. BROOKS 

Was born in Ohio, February 22, 1844, but found the western trail 
in childhood and landed in Peoria County, Illinois, and there learned 
the carpenter trade and there he found Miss M. J. Erfoi d and was mar- 
ried December 27, 1866, in Peoria County. She was from the old Key- 
stone state and born in Columbianna County, March 18, 1842. They 
have had four children : William Irving, Anna Myrtle, now Mrs. C. C 
Sackett, M. D., Mary G. and Deane H. Mary G. died October ^3, 1878. 

The famil> came to Seward Col^nty and settled in "B" precinct in 
1872, near the Oak Groves. Mr. Brooks enlisted at Peoria in 1862 and 
.served three years, having a chance to smell much liuint i)owder. Was 
mustered out at Selma, Alabama, in 1865. 

Mr. Brooks belongs to the A. 0. U. W. and is a long time member 
of the Seward Presbyterian church. 

Miss Myrtle was married to Dr. C. C. Sackett June 5, 1901, and 
resides at Laurel, Nebraska. Irving has a good position at Lincoli.. 
He served seven months in the Cuban war. The family moved to 
Seward in 1879. where Mr. Brooks has been engaged as a carpenter and 
builder all these years, and the buildings that show his handiwork may 
be numbered by the hundreds in city and county. 



16 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEARASKA 

WALTER BEST 

Son of Uncle Tommy Best, one of the pioneers of "I" precinct, 
was born among the stnmiDs and stones of St. Lawrence County, New 
York, October 27, 1856. The family came to Seward County in 1872, 
and here Walter helped make the farm and when he grew to be a man 
he formed an attachment for Miss Elizabeth Lynch and they were mar- 
ried at Milford October 8, 1885. She was born at Monticello, Wiscon- 
sin, September 10, 1856. They have six children: Maud J., Mary. 
Hazel, Ethel, Stewart R. and Shirley. 

Mr. Best now owns a farm in Section 35 of "I" Town, just beside 
Pleasant Dale. He is a membei of the Knights of Macabees and of 
the M. W. A. The Baptist church is the family home. 



GOTTLIEB BENNINGHOVEN 

Was a native of the Province of the Rhine in Germany, born June 
13, 1836. Was married June 27, 1861 to Henrietta Kreiger. 

Although Mr. Benninghoven was a man of affairs in the old country, 
he longed for the freer air of America. He was at that time an officer 
of high rank, being mayor of his district. 

In 1876, they bid adieu to the old home and came straightway to 
Seward, where he purchased one of the best farms which has been the 
family home to the present. They had a large family of boys, many of 
whom have made their marks in the world of letters : Ernest, Otto, 
Oswald, Leo, Enwald, Paul, Herbert, William and Daniel. The young- 
est was born in Seward County. 

Mr. Benninghoven was a bright scholar and was a writer of great 
ability. Was for a long time corresponding editor of the Illinois State 
Zietung. Later was commercial editor of the German American Press 
Association. After a life of valuable labor, he died January 16, 1899. 

Mrs. Benninghoven who survives him is a lady of great intelli- 
gence, having received a liberal ediication in the old home and seems 
to have increased her knowledge with the passing years. 

JOHN M. BENDER 

A Canadian boy that got sight of the stars and stripes across the 
lake and yearned to take shelter under its ample folds. John was born 
in Ontario July 28, 1861. Came to Indiana when six years old, and to 
Iowa at twelve, and at twenty-one he continued the march westward 
and landed in Seward County in the spring of 1882 and settled on Sec- 
tion 8 in "O" Town, among his jieople, the Arnish Mennoriites were he 
wooed and won the heart and hand of Miss Barbary Miller and was 
married October 5,1884 at her father's home in the same neighborhood. 
Miss Miller was born in Holmes County, Iowa, November 27, 1863. and 
came to Seward County in childhood. They have six children: Ida 
May, now Mrs M. R. Bender, David E. , Franklin J., Gertie M., Lydia 
B. , and William J. B. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



17 



Mr. Bender owns a beautiful farm in a most splendid locality. 
The church home is with the Amish Merronite. 



DR. GEORGE W, BRANDON 

The oldest living practitioner in Seward County, whs born in Lee 
County, Illinois, June 22, 1847, and was third son of B. F. and Marga- 
ret Brandon. These old people died at the doctor's home in Milford. 
George was a wandering boy from the time he was six years old. Com- 




Dr. George W. Brandon 

menced his school days at Dixon, Illinois, and completed his studies at 
the seminary there. Then he went through the Chicago Medical Col- 
lege, also the medical department of the University uf Michigan. He 
graduated at Rush Medical College in 1871. Spent a year in Soublette, 
Illinois. Full of life and ambition, Illinois could not hold him. He 
saw the rising star in the west and hither he came in 1872. He found 
just the spot to his liking in the Blue Valley at Milford and put up his 
shingle, nailing it so thoroughly that it has not blown down in thirty- 
two years. The Doctor took a liking to Miss Laura A. Haverstock, 
and they were married. Laura was the eldest daughter of John V. and 
Rebecca Haverstock, near Milford. She was an Ohio girl but now an 
old time resident of Seward County. They have but one child, IdaM., 
yet at home 

The Doctor was appointed coroner of the county a long time ago, 
and has been elected several times to the same oftice. Has been a pen- 
sion examiner for eight years. Was coroner and officiated in the Bates 



18 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

murder tnal, and took a hand in the famous Henigan and Astor trial 
where the sheriif was a party. 

Doctor has been a Mason for twenty-nine years and has taljen the 
thirty-second degree. Has been their Secretary for fifteen years. Is 
also a member of the A. O. CJ. W., the M. W. A. and the Knights of 
Macabees. Doctor says he is and has been a republican from "away 
back. ' " 

In his long career he has traversed these prairies through storm and 
sunshine. He knows all about night rides in blizzards, of worrying 
through snow drifts v\ ith jaded horses. He knows something about In- 
dian war dances, of which we will tell more on another page. 

LOUIS T. BOUCHARD 

Was a Canada boy. born in the Province of (Quebec, January 15, 
1847 of French parentage. At eighteen he crossed over where the stare 
and stripes float in Vermont, but there were too many rockj- hills there 
to suit the boy, and upon the western horizon he saw the bright star 
that had recently found its place on the flag, and in 1874 he found Ne- 
braska and located ,iust we.st of Tamora in Seward County, and made 
settlement in 1875. In 1876, November 5, he married Miss Mary A. 
Oleson, a Seward County girl. They were the parents of two children, 
one who died in infancy and Mary A. who is now completing a course 
in music at Des Moines, Iowa. 

Mrs. Bouchard died September 9, 1893. August 16, 1896, Mr. Bou- 
chard married Miss Roxie Evarts, an Ohio lady, born at Mansfield, 
Novemher 10, 1867. She came to Nebraska in childhood, 1872. Three 
children were born to them: Norval E. , Marie A., and Louis T. Jun. 

Mr. Bouchard has accumulated a handsome fortune in Seward 
County. Now owns four hundred and twenty-five acres of valuable 
land with up-to-date improvements. 

HIRAM A. BRISBIN 

Began to snuff Nebraska blizzards in 1869 when all the region 
around him was an unbroken wilderness. 

Hiram was born among the rocky hills of old Clinton County, New 
York, February 9. 1847. Says he was a happy mixture of English, Ir- 
ish and Dutch (pretty well mixed we judge). He was left an orphan 
at a tender age and had to ' ' paddle his own canoe. ' ' In 1855 he struck 
the western trail and landed in Indiana. He halted but a year when he 
pursued his westward way to Illinois. Here he was bound out to a 
farmer, but the bonds were broken when Hiram heard the bugle call to 
arms, for he ran away and enlisted in the first Wisconsin cavalry in 
August 1863. Was discharged in July, 1865. That year he again took 
the trail and we find him in Alamakee County, Iowa, where he mar- 
ried Miss Josephine Davis in 1868. The next year they found Nebraska 
and were satisfied. Located six miles west of Milfoi'd where Mrs. Bris- 
bin died, January 18, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 19 

In 1889 was married to Miss Frank Pyatt of Seward. They have 
two children. Marshall Ney and Ruth. 

Mr. Brisbin is a charter member of Blue-river Lodge No. 30, A. F. 
and A. M. Was one of the war horses in the county-seat contest. He 
has had a hand in many political contests. Was greenback candidate 
for both House and Senate but could not count votes enough. Has held 
several tow iship offices, and with his neighbor, Ely Courtright, cham- 
pioned the first rural routes in Seward County. 

Mr. Brisbin, the orphan boy, soldier, homesteader and good citizen 
has seen all sides of pioneer life but he has got here "all the same" 
and now enjoys peace and plenty, surrounded l)y a host of friends in 
the county and state he has helped to redeem from the "desert wild 
and drear. ' ' 

ALBERT E. BAKER 

Grew to manhood in his native town, Manchester, Indiana, where he 
was born September 18, 1848. After the usvxal course of study in the 
common schools of that early day, he took a course in the Grundy Com- 
mercial College at Cincinnati. Came to Seward County in 1882 and 
located near Tamora on a farm, and farm work has been his calling in 
life. He loves his work and makes a succe.ss of it. He is a man of 
ability and enterprise. 

Has been twice President of our Agricultural Society and twice its 
Secretai}'. Was elected county assessor in 1903, and has served the 
people well. In politics he is a democrat, and is very popular with 
the party. And he has plenty of good friends outside of his party. 

October 24, 1867, he married Miss Sarah J. jJunn of his native 
place and there were born to them children as follows : Lucinda, now 
Mrs. Morrill Underbill, two died in infancy, then Albert E. , at home, 
and Margaret, now Mrs. Carl Nelson. 

Mr. and Mrs. Baker have most of their lives been members of the 
M. E. Church, where Mrs. Baker was an earnest worker in all matters 
of charity and other church duties until her poor health compelled her 
to retire irom these duties. Mr. Baker has for many years been an 
honored member of the A. F. and A. M. 

HON. HEINRICH BECKMAN. 
One of our valued and most useful German American citizens, 
born in Hanover, Germany, September 14, 1844. Grew to manhood in 
the Fatherland and served in the army in the war between Hanover 
and Prussia in 1866. At the close of that war he concluded to seek a 
home in a better and freer land. He fir.st made his home in Cleveland, 
Ohio, but in 1867 we find him in Clayton County, Iowa. While there 
his heart was made glad when he heard that the girl whom he had left 
behind him had found her way to America, and was living at Milwau- 
kee, Wisconsin, and on February 23, 1869, he claimed Miss Eleanor Eg- 
gert as his bride, at Milwaukee. She was born in Hanover, February 
15, 1846. 



20 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

The young couple had heard of our beautiful Isebraska and that 
Uncle Sam was ready to give all his children a farm on our broad acres 
so they came to Seward County and took a homestead on Section 12 in 
"H" Town, on May 14, 1870, it being one of the very first homesteads 
in the east part of "H" Town. 

Here among these beautiful hills have come to bless the Beckman 
home, eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Beside these are: ■ 
H. Frederick, a farmer, J. Heinrich, a professor in Lincoln High School, 
Herman F. , a farmer, Annie M., Ernest F. and Martha C. E. Three 
last yet at home. 

Mr. Beckman served Seward County as representative in our Legis- 
lature in 1889. He owns a beautiful home consisting of 818 acres of 
land all nicely improved. Church home is with the Lutherans. 

WILLIAM T. BRINKMEYER 

Is another of the home lads, })orn April 6, 1878 and was raised on a 
farm in ''J" precinct five miles south-west of Seward, where he yet re- 
sides. 

He belongs to the United Workmen and is a member of the Evan- 
gelical Church. 

The story of his marriage must be told by the future historian. 
We trust it may be a most successful marriage and well told. Seward 
County boys generally do well when they have half a chance. 

ADAM BECHTEL 

Was born in Germany, July 18, 1845. At ten years of age came to 
Chicago where he remained five years. The city with all its charms 
could not longer hold him and he went to Iroquois County where he re- 
mained twenty-three years. In 1869, February 21, he returned and 
claimed the girl he had left behind him, and was married to Miss 
Hulda Timm. German girl, born in 1849. Children that came to the 
home are as follows : Lena, now Mrs. H. VVullennaher, May, Clara and 
Walter. Mr. Bechtel came to Sewaid County in 1884 and settled in "K" 
precinct. Sold that farm and now owns one in "L" precinct. He has 
lived in the city for about fourteen years and is engaged in the feed and 
flour business. Owns a very commodious and complete ware house. 

HENRY F. BUSCHE 

Our skilled and most competent worker with the fragrant weed, 
(tobacco) was a native of Westphalia, Prussia, born March 24, 1866. 
Spent his youth and early manhood in the Fatherland, but somehow 
Henry had a yearning for the great land of promise beyond, the ocean, 
and at twenty-six he took leave of the old home and landed in Lincoln 
in 1892, but before he came, he wooed and won the heart of Miss Kate 
Meyer of his native home. She was born December 9, 1865. They have 
four children : Mary, Elsie, Henry and Arthur. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 21 

The young couple came to Seward in 1896, where he is engaged in 
the manufacture of cigars. His "Seward Special" has become known 
as an extra good article of cigars and is very popular. 

Mr. Busche is a member of the A.O. U. W. Church home is with 
the Evangelical people at Seward. 

CARL BOYES 

February 14, 1841, in old Cataraugus County. New York, among the 
rocks, everlasting hills and Cataraugus Indians, Carl first saw the light. 
He can't tell just how he got oui of those hills, whether he came "a 
foot or on horseback. Says he is no "injun" although born on their 
reserve. Like most of the bright New York boys, he wanted to get out 
of that tangled mass of brush and briars, and by easy stages he wan- 
dered westward and in 1867 we find him working at the dam by the 
mill site on the Blue, where he threw dirt, cut brush and fished ; then 
rolled logs and did all kinds of work in helping to lay the foundations 
of the great mill. 

July, 1872, he married a pioneer girl. Miss Elsie Clarke, who was 
born in New York among the icebergs near the St. Lawrence river, and 
came to Seward County in the spring of 1866, and was one of the class 
that attended the first school in the old log cabin. 

Children of the house hold are as follows : Burdette, Eugenie, 
Myrtle, now Mrs. J. Anderson and Don C. 

Mr. Boyes is now the oldest mill man in the county having been 
connected with the business for over a third of a century, and has grown 
rich and gray in the work. 

EDWARD C. BETZER 

An Iowa boy that made his way to Seward County when but a lad 
of twelve. Was born at Pella, Iowa, March 30. 1874, and came to 
Seward County in 1886 where his parents settled on Section 2, "F" 
Town and where Edward still resides with his widovv-ed mother, and 
runs the farm. 

Ed is an indiistrious farmer. He belongs to the Royal Highlanders. 

REV. CARL H. BECKER 

Pastor in charge of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Seward, 
was born at Evansville, Indiana, September 7, 1858. Was educated at 
Fort Wayne and later took a full course in the Theological Seminary at 
St. Louis. Commenced his ministerial work at the age of twenty-one 
and has now been a laborer in the Master's vineyard for a quarter of a 
century. He came to Seward in January, 1895, and has been the pastor 
here since that date. 

Married Miss Louisa Schnute, November 29, 1883, at Evansville, the 
native place of his bride, who was born November 23, 1861. They have 
born to them seven children: Louise, Walter H. W., Karl F. J. Paul, 
Hugo, Esther and Erwin. 



22 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Rev. Becker is a highly respected Christian gentleman, of fine 
attainments. 

THOMAS H. BISHOP 

One of the many old veterans of the union army, was bom at Troy, 
New York, Augvist 23, 1842. His parents took a siege of western fever 
when Tom was a babe, and landed in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, 
where the lad grew up. 

August 16, 1863, he enlisted in Company H, 33d Wisconsin regiment. 
Was at the siege of Vicksbvirg, with Banks up the Red river; was at 
Franklin in two fights, at Nashville and old Spanish Fort and at Mont- 
gomery and in a fierce battle at Tuplo, Tennessee. Discharged August 
13, 186.-). Returned home and found Miss Annie C. Smith, who was. 
waiting for a brave soldier boy. They were married February 11, 1874. 
She was a Wisconsin girl born at Salem April 3, 18.')2. They have nine 
children as follows: Carlton O., Clarence P., N. Edward, Julia M.. 
now Mrs. O. Burd, Ema M. , Florence E. , Rufus A., Maud M., and 
Ralph R. 

Mr. Bishop came to Seward County in 1873, took a homestead on 
Section 10, Town 9, R 4 East, in "P" precinct, then went after his best 
girl. He is a long time member of the Gr. A. R. and the A. F. and A. 
M. , also of the Modern Woodmen. 

WILLIS D. BADGLEY 

Was born in Pike County, Illinois, August 25, 1861, but did not 
remain there very long as his enterprising wndowed mother took the 
western fever and found her way to Seward County in 1866, where she 
homesteaded the land near Milford where Willis now lives and which 
he owns. Willis helped his mother like a good boy, and went to school 
as soon as there was a school. 

In 1883, December 13, he married Miss Edith E. Bundy. She was 
born at Salem, Wisconsin, August 7, 1863, and came to Seward County 
when a child. She died October 17, 1903. They had two children 
Myrtle L. and Lee W. 

Mr. Badgley found a young widow lady at Juniata, Nebraska, and 
married her September 10, 1904. Mrs. Lydia Ball was born at Russell, 
New York, February 11, 1862. She has two children Myrtle and Vernon. 

Mr. Badgley owns and operates his mother's old homestead near the 
Industrial home east of Milford. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. 
and Modern Woodmen. Church home is with the M. E x^^ople at 
Milford. 

LUDWIG J. BENDER 

Was a Hoosier boy, born of German parents in Allen County, 
August 28, 1864. He spent his young days learning to farm, and in 
1886, when a young man, he struck the road that led to Seward County. 
In 1891 he discovered that he had left his best girl behind him, and he 






HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 23 

returned to the old home and married Miss Eva K. Kaiser, January 29. 
Then he came back happy and made his home in "•J" precinct near 
Ruby. 

Mrs. Bender was born in Allen County, Indiana, April 2, 1872. 

They have four children: viz., Araan, Hedwig, Ottomar and Rein- 
hart. 

Mr. Bender owns a good farm and is a good wide awake citizen. 
Church home is with the Lutherans. 

HERMAN J. BERNECKER 

Is one of our leading and among the most respected German Ameri- 
can citizens. Was born in the Fatherland, April 13.1852, and got on the 
American trail with his honored father in 18(30, and landed in Grant 
County, Wisconsin, where he remained until he found that better place, 
Seward County, in 1873, when he bought the old farm where be expects 
to spend his days, surrounded as he is with all the comforts of life on 
his beautiful farm. At his new home, Mr. Bernecker found another 
prize. Miss F. S. Goety, and was married at the old stone church near 
Middle Creek, November 8, 1876. 

She was born October 15, 1854 in Beauro County, Illinois, and came 
to this county in childhood. They have had five children : Minnie and 
Emma died in 1884, Bertha, Alma and Albert. Mr. Bernecker has been 
school treasurer of his district since it was organized. He has also 
been treasurer of the German Mutual Insurance Company since its 
organization. He has also occupied many places of trust and honor in 
his church. Herman is what we all consider a first class citizen. 

The chux'ch home of the family is with the Lutherans. 

CHRISTIAN C. BIRKY 

Was born in Germany, May 27, 1852. He crossed the Atlantic when 
eight years old, so we take it that he is a pretty good American by this 
time. 

He was raised in the sucker state and there he found Miss Elizabeth 
Roth, and they were married February 13, 1876. at Washington, Illinois. 

She was born in Woodford Coiinty, Illinois, January 26. 1859, where 
she was educated. They have only twelve children: Mary, now Mrs. A. 
J. Welsh, Millie, now Mrs. C. I. Morefield, Lizzie, now Mrs. H. F. 
Ahlschwede, L ma and Christian died in infancy, Henry, Emma, 
Fannie, Minnie, Lydia, Anna and Esther. He came to the present 
home three miles north of Milford in 1887. Has a nice farm and knows 
how to take care of it. Is a wide awake citizen. 

Church home is with the Lutheran Evangelical. 

ISMA BOWKER 

A genuine Nebraska boy, born in Sutton, Clay County, September 
19, 1873. He lived when a child at old Camden with his maternal 



24 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

grand-parents, Mr. and Mrs. Malick. They were among the earliest 
settlers of that old historic ground. 

Mr. Bowker is yet waiting f )r a good wife. He is a partner in 
one of the largest mercantile houses of Pleasant Dale, and is a thorough 
young buisness man. 

Is a member of the I. O. O. F. and also of the Maccabees. 

/ 

JOSEPH BLACKBURN 

One of the old soldier boys, who was born under the flag of old 
England in Yorkshire, March 8, 1831. In his young days, he learned of 
the better land beyond the sea, and came to America, and at Rockford, 
Illinois, he found a young war widow, and he followed the scriptures 
injunction to "visit the widow" and it resulted as such visits fre- 
quently do. They were married November 5, 1862. There was a little 
son that he became heir to under the transaction, Frank J. Crowel. 
The union brought eleven children, five of which died in infancy. 
Those yet living are: Ella, now Mrs. Wm. Hallet, Alice E. , now Mrs. 
J. W. Helm, Harry B. , Elizabeth, now Mrs. E. Blanchard, Rose, now 
Mrs. F. Wai"d, and George. 

Mr. Blackburn showed his loyalty to his adopted land by enlisting 
in the 67th Illinois regiment and again in the Company D, 11th 
Illinois infantry, where he got to smell burnt xjowder in plenty. Was at 
Zazoo City in a death struggle Was on the run toward Champion hill 
and finally saw the other fellows run. Was in the camxiaign at Poncher 
Train, Blakely and Mobile. Took a long ride up Red river and was 
discharged at Marshall, Texas, in October, 1865. Came to Nebraska in 
1869, and pre-empted the gold field now owned by friend Dillenbeck in 
"P" precinct, and sold his light for three dollars, gold and all. 

Later he settlea in "K" precinct. Has for many years made his 
home in Seward. 

Is an enthusiastic member of the G. A. R. Votes the republican 
ticket when opportunity offers. 

WILLIAIM A. BROKAW 

Is one of the great host of Fulton County, Illinois boys that found 
their way to Seward County in pioneer days. The lad was born near 
the little old town of Fairview, June 12, 1843, when that county was 
yet a wild wilderness. Gus(as we call him) there grew to manhood and 
married Miss Jane A. Hageman, October 20, 1863. She also was a na- 
tive of Fairview, born September 4, 1844. She died at the family 
homestead east of Ruby. March 12. 1894. They had six children, viz: 
Two di«d in infancy. The living are Frank H. , Alletta, now Mrs. W. 
O. Robins. Adie C. , now Mrs. A. J. Faust and William H. 

The family came to Seward County in 1869. In 1898, July 3, Mr. 
Brokaw married Miss Albina Cox of Seward County. 

She was born in Pike County, Illinois and came to Seward County 
in 1878 with her parents. She died August 11, 1901. Mr. Brokaw set- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 25 

tied in section 14 "J" precinct. He is a long time member of the A.F. 
and A. M. 

FRANK H. RROKAW 

Another of those Fulton Count}-. Illinois, boys that got on the 
western trail in early youth and has grown up with the country sure 
enough. Was born October 20, 1864, and spent his youthful days on his 
father's homestead, helping to open up the farm. His neighboi", Fore- 
man, had a nice little girl, Maggie R., and Frank and Maggie played 
together and bye and bye Frank won her heart and they were married 
October 20, 1883 

She was born in Pike County, Illinois, August 7, 1867. They have 
eight children, viz: Augustus D. , Elsie L. ,Eva J., Frank A. , Alletta A. , 
Frank W. , Maggie N. and William R. 

He owns a splendid farm four miles south of Seward. Is prosperous 
and contented. Church home is with the Christian church at Seward. 

JOSEPH BROOKS 

Adjutant of the Soldier's Home at Milford. Was born September 15, 
1837, in Athens County, Ohio, where he grew to manhood and received 
his education. When the war broke out and he heard the drum beat 
his soul was fired with patriotism and July 25, 1861, he enlisted in 
Company C, 30th Ohio Infantry. Was with General Cox in Virginia, 
and in 1862 with General Burnside and was in West Virginia a while 
then wnth General Sherman. At the siege of Vicksburg was commiss- 
ioned Second Lieutenant. After the siege was in the conflict at South 
Mountain, at Antietam.at Jackson and followed Sherman to the sea and 
to Washington and was at the grand review as Captain Brooks. Then 
was sent to Little Rock. Arkansas, where he was mustered out. lie 
returned and married the girl he had left behind, Miss Nancy A. Criss, 
in 1866. 

She was born at Harrisonville, Ohio, December 25, 1846. There 
were born to them three children: Effie, now Mrs. Carlyle, Etta, yet at 
home and Mattie, now Mrs. R. Quein. 

Captain Brooks moved to Iowa in 1870 and to Nebraska in 1878 
where he bought land at Odell in Gage County and made a farm. Was 
appointed Adjutant of the Home in 1901, where he seems to be making 
a good record. Has decided that Seward County is the proper place to 
make his home. 

MICHAEL M. CAMPION 

Was an Irish lad, born in County Kilkeney in February, 1839. 
Somehow Mike got a glimpse of "old Glory" and resolved to make his 
home in America and at twelve we find the lad at Cleveland, Ohio, and 
from thence he came to Iowa City, Iowa, and there he found his good 
wife, Miss Ella McCune, and was married June 28, 1866. She was born 
at Akran, Ohio, July 18, 1851. To them were born eight children : Cora, 



26 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

now dead, Burt, Lucy, now Mrs. J. Gillan, John now dead ; Ella dead ; Irene, 
now Mrs. Robert Campbell, Elvin and Floyd. The family came to this 
county in 1871 and homesteaded in Section 8 in "M" Town. Mr. 
Campion was among the earliest settlers on the prairie south of Beaver 
Crossing. He enlisted in the Iowa first, and was in the bloodj' conflict 
at Wilson Creek under the brave General Lyon. 

Mr. Campion has been a successful farmer, and is now enjoying 
the fruits of a well spent life. 

MARTIN CAMPION 

Was born in old Irelp.nd, October 2f{, 1842, but did not stay there 

very long as his parents saw a brighter star beyond the sea, and in 1850, 

when Martin was eight years old, we find him picking up pebbles along 

he beach of Lake Erie, at Cleveland. Soon again he takes the trail 

toward the setting sun, and lands in Johnson County, Iowa. 

He found his best girl in Linn County and w^as married near Mt. 
Vernon, February 7, 1871, to Miss Elizabeth Graft. She was an Ohio 
girl, born in Columbian County, September 1, 1844. They have had 
five children : Charles E., Margaret I., William M., Herman and Alliert, 
who died in infancy. 

Mr. Campion enlisted August 2, 18<i2. in the 28th Iowa Infantry. 
Was introduced to the rebels at Fort Giljson, at Champion Hill, Vicks- 
burg, Jackson, Miss., Edwards Station, Sabine Cross-roads, Cain river, 
Mitchell Bayou. Yellow Bayou and several other engagements, and he 
was finally taken in by the rebs at Winchester, Virginia, and for a time 
enjoyed the hospitality of Libbie prison and Belle Island for thirty days. 
Somehow they got tired boarding him and he was parolled and sent to 
Annapolis and was discharged at Savannah, Georgia, July 31, 1865. 

Martin had lots of experience which he is ready to tell \ou if you 
desire to hear it. He can tell you all about the bill of fare at Hotel De 
Libbie. 

]V[r. Campion came a:nong us ia 1871 and bought a farm in "M" 
TowJi on Section 24. He is a wide awake citizen. 

Church home is with the M. E. people at Beaver Crossing. 

ELI COURTRIGHT 

Was an Illinois boy, born on the banks of the beautiful Rock river 
at Dixon, November 2(j, 1847. December 26, 1878, he strayed away to 
Elgin on the splendid Fox river and found Miss Laui-inda A. Kelley, 
and they closed a good bargain. She was a Kentucky girl, born in 
Logan County, September 18, 1842. 

They came to Seward County in October, 1873, and first settled on 
Middle Creek, but bought the present home on Section 13, "N" precinct 
and soon thereafter moved to the new home. 

Eli was a son of Hon. J. B. Courtright. He is a farmer and a good 
one. 

Church home is with the M. E. people at Milford. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 27 

KEV. E. L. CLARK 

The first resident preacher of the county was born in Addison 
County, Vermont in 181U. His father died just before his birth and 
the boy was raised by a step-father on a farm among the hills, stumps 
and stones of that rough region. He obtained his education in the 
common schools, and later graduated in the Seminary. As soon as he 
became of age he commenced studying for the ministiy with a Baptist 
cleryman of that vicinity, and commenced his active work at Troy. He 
filled many pulpits acceptably in Vermont until 1851, when his health 
failed and then he went to Adirondock Country and opened a farm in 
that wild wilderness. 

At Whiting, Vermont, Mr. Clark formed the acquaintance of Miss 
Nancy Munger, where they were married in 1881. Miss Manger was 
born in 1812 and was raised at that place. 

Some years later the family were stationed at East Constable, New 
York, where he was pastor for many years and until his removal to 
Seward County in I860. The family settled on a homestead two miles 
south of Seward. Mr. Clark jH-eached the second sermon ever delivered 
in this locality in the fall of ISf).") at the home of the writer, two and 
one half miles north-west of the present city. Mr. and Mrs. Clark were 
most welcome in this new community. The family had to undergo 
many privations and hardships in the pioneer days V)ut were always 
cheerful. He proved of great benefit to the community in moulding 
moral and religious sentiment among the people. He organized the 
first Baptist Church in 1870. 

In 18()(j was elected representative to the Territorial legislature and 
also was elected and served as our first representative in the State Leg- 
islature, where he bore an honorable part in the Capitol removal bill 
and many other legislative acts. He had a prominent place on several 
important committees; was considered a very valuable and active mem- 
ber. 

JNlr. and Mrs. Clark raised eleven children, six boys and five girls, 
all of which grew to be men and women: Mary J., now Mrs. Forbes, 
Mattie, now Mrs. G. F. Dickie, Augustus M. , now deceased, Schuyler 
B. , C. M. , E. L. , now deceased. Rev. Moulton, Lucj, now deceased, 
Miriam, now Mrs. O. A. Stubbs, Elsie M., now Mrs. Carlos Boyes and 
Rev. Victor. 

Mr. Clark's health entirely failed in the winter of 1872-73 and in 
the early spring his Father called him home to his well earned reward 
and he was followed to his resting place by sorrowing people. His 
good companion followed him in 1874, December 19, and was tenderly 
laid to rest by his side. 

IRVING G. CHAPIN 

Is another of those lads who served an apprenticeship rolling logs, 
picking up stone and grubbing around old stumps in the keystone state. 
Born November 7, 1859, at VVatsburg. Remained at the old home until 



28 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

fifteen when he went awaj' to school and there we suspect be heard of 
our grand -Nebraska, where he landed in 1883. 




I. G. Chapin 

He went into the lumber trade at Beaver Crossing. In 1890 he had 
made a little trade with Miss Elizabeth B. Davies and in February they 
were married at Utica, Nebraska. She was an English girl, born near 
Bristol in 1865. They have four children, viz: Helen D., Lillian, F.. 
Harriet C. and Irving S. Mr. Chapin has become one of Nebraska's 
prominent lumber mei chants and controls several large yards among 
which is a very large one at Seward and one at Lincoln, Nebraska. 

He is a thirty second degree Mason and an M. W. A. Church home 
is with the Presbyterians. 



ELISHA COURTRIGHT 

Son of Abraham Courtright one of the leading pioneers of Seward 
County, was born October 21, 1850, at Dixon, Illinois where he spent 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 29 

his boyhood days beside the beautiful Rock River, swimming in its 
placid waters, perhaps catching fish, etc. At fourteen his parents found 
Nebraska and located for awhile in Cass County, but came to Seward 
County in 1866, and located on the homestead where Elisha now lives in 
the old historic stone house. Mr. Courtright was married to Miss Ella 
Cunningham, May 10, 1882. She was born near Monroe, Wisconsin. 
She died some years ago. They had two children, Abraham and James D. 

March 8, 1904, Mr. Courtright married Mrs. Florence Casselberg, 
a Pennsylvanian girl that came here five years ago. Mr. Courtright's 
parents were among the earliest settlers in "P" precinct and the old 
home is a landmark. He is a Mason. 




Joseph H. Casler 

Utica's present efficient and gentlemanly postmaster, vpas born in 
Marquette County, Wisconsin, April 12, 1856, where he grew to man- 
hood and was educated in the graded schools. In early manhood he 
went to Minnesota, bat it was chilly there and not to his liking and in 
1878 we find him at the little hamlet of York. In July 1888, he formed 
the acquaintance of Miss Ella Tracy, and married her. She was an 
Illinois girl. There were no children to this union. One year later she 



30 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEARASKA 

died. July 5, 1893, he married Miss Lizzie May Leavens, of Utica. 
Born at Disart, Iowa, March 8, 1875. Five children came to bless their 
home, viz: Ruth, Nina. Lester. Harlow and Vaughn, all Nebraskans 




Mrs. J. H. easier 

Mr. Casler was foi' thirty years connected with the boot and shoe 
business. In November, 1899, was appointed postmaster at Utica. He 
made Utica his home in 1880, about the time it was springing to life. 
He has an honoi-ed place with the I. O. O. F. , with the Workmen, the 
M. W. A. and the Aconites. 

The family church home is with the Presbyterian people. Mr. 
Casler is one of the go-ahead citizens of Utica. 

ALISON CLARK 

A Seward County boy, born January 29, 1868. Educated in the 
schools of Seward and April 12, 1899, he captured a Seward County girl, 
Mis'* Ida RicJienbavi, who was born July 13, 1872, just east of Seward. 
They have two little ones. Kenneth and Mattie. 

He is a good farmer and will some of these days own a farm. 
Belongs to the Workmen and the M. W. A. Wide-awake and industri- 
ous, a typical young American farmer. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 31 

JEFFERSON COX. 

The Cox boys are noted for finding the western trail when young, 
and Jefferson is no exception. Was born on the bine clay hills of Brown 
County, Ohio, June 6, 1849, and found the way to Pike County, Illinois, 
when a yearling, where he grew to manhood and where he married Miss 
Eliza B. Reaves, January 25, 1871. She died April 10, 18^4. There 
were two children born to them, viz: Albina B. , late Mrs. W. A. 
Brokaw, and Lydia E. , now Mrs. L. Badger. 

October 29, 1876, Mr. Cox married Miss Elizabeth E. Reaves, sister 
of the former wife. She was a Pike County girl. They had two 
children, viz : Charles W. , died in 1896, and Lilly M. , died in 1884. 
Mrs. Cox died March 8, 1884. 

October, 1884, Mi-. Cox married his third wife, Miss Emma Hill, 
near Ruby. She was l)orn in Pike County, Illinois, August 24, 1867. 

They have four children, viz: Pearl., now Mrs. F. J. Ahlschwede, 
Doras D. , Earl, and Alphus J. 

The family came to Seward County in 1878 and settled on Section 
14, "J" Town, where he now owns a beaiitiful home. The church 
home of the family is with the M. E. church at Ruby. 

LANSON J. CLINE 

Seward's living and walking encyclopedia was an Ohio boy, born 
in Wyandotte County, April 9, 1848. At two years of age his father 
died. His mother saw the trail leading westward and landed in Indiana. 
Here the lad grew up, or partly grew up, and heard the drum beating 
for volunteers and at the tender age of fifteen enlisted in Company C, 
12th Indiana Cavalry. His regiment did post duty a year at Huntsville, 
Alabama, then helped capture Mo))ile, and was with General Grier on 
his famous raid. Was discharged November 22, 1865. At about this 
time he formed the acquaintance of a young Kansas teacher and formed 
a partnership with her. Miss Isabel Halstead, at Reading, Michigan, 
February 21, 1872. She was born in Ohio, May 10, 1850. They have 
one daughter. Miss Eva, who is now in the Lincoln Business College. 
Mr. Cline has been the efficient sexton for both our cemeteries for six 
years. 

He is a great reader of history and has a most remarkable memory 
and is considered authority in all matters historical, both ancient and 
modern. 

W. W. COX 

A pioneer from the start. Among the rugged hills of old Cataraugus 
County, New York, the lad first saw the light November 2,1832. The 
parents saw the bright western star in 1834 and moved overland to Cen- 
tral Illinois, where the father died within a few months. The widow, 
with the children, moved very soon afterwards to Green Coiinty, Wis- 
consin Territory, where, May 8, 1838, she died. From this time the 



32 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



boy was not raised, "he just growed. " His mother is supposed to be 
the first white woman buried in Green County. 

Six years were spent with James Hawthorn, a splendid man, near 
Monroe, but the lad can never forget his wife, who was a tyrant. At 
thirteen the boy found his way back to New York state where he fell 
into the hands of the Phillistines. In 1849 he returned to the west and 




Mrs. Rebecca Sampson Cox 

in IHoO he ])egan his career as a teacher. Six years later he found one 
of the best women in the world and was mairied, March 27, 1856, to Re- 
becca Sampson. Eight children came to bless their home, viz: Kate J., 
now Mrs J. A. Ruby; Nettie M. , late Mrs. F, P. Pingreee, Elmer E., 
now dejid. Lincoln W., Dr. Onmar L. , Charles B., Nora A., now Mrs. 
E. C. Baker, and Carrie R., died in infancy. The family made 
residence on a homestead December. 1864. Church home is with the 
M. E. people. For further information read his book. 

MRS. REBECCA SAMPSON COX 
One of the pioneer mothers of Nebraska, was born at Paris, Ohio, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



33 



August 26, 1833. In her infancy her parents moved overland into the 
wilderness of Knox County. Illinois, where she grew to womanhood 
amidst the wild surroundings of that new country. March 27.1856, she 
became the wife of W. W. Cox and two years later the young couple 
took the western trail and landed in Page County, Iowa and in 1860 Feb- 
ruary 28, they came to the the new territory of Nebraska. In all the 




L. W. Cox 

struggles incident to pioneer life she was a most noble wife and mother. 
In the church of her choice she was ever faithful to every obligation. 
In the communities which she helped to build she was looked upon as a 
model. After raising a family of seven children that can truly call 
her name blessed, she took her departure for the Heavenly Home Feb- 
ruary 14, 1900. She had been a consistent Christian worker in the M. 
E. church for fifty-one years. Her humble home was the shelter where 
the weary pioneer minister always found a warm welcome. She helped 
organize the first Sabbath school in Lancaster County and also the first 
in Seward County and she helped organize the first M. E. church in 
all this wilderness. 



LINCOLN W. COX 

The first white boy born in "G" precinct. Came to cheer the 
wilderness home of his parents, March 16, 1865, two and one half miles 
Northwest of the present city of Seward, 



34 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Lincoln fished in the river, 'chased cattle and had a good time 
generally. Received his |educ'ation 'in the city schools and Omaha 
Business College and in the himber yard where he commenced his 
training at sixteen. While in his minority had charge of yards at Waco, 
Exeter, Ansley then at Omaha. Was foreman at McCook yard nine 
years, when he opened three yards in Scotts Bluffs County, at Scotts 
BlufEs at Mitchel and Minitare in 1902. 

Married Miss Sarah E. Linville, April 2, 1897, who died at McCook, 




Dr. O. L. Cox 

Nebraska, in March, 1900. They had one little daughter. Ruby Lin- 
ville. 

Mr. Cox married the second wife, Miss Loretta Trowbridge, June 
24, 1902. They also have two children, Ruth V. and an infant not 
named. 

Mr. Cox is a member of the I. O. O.F., A. O. U. W., B. U. W. 
and Sons of Protection. This Seward County boy now holds a leading 
position among the energetic business men of Scotts Bluffs County. 

DR. OMAR L. COX 

The second boy who is now living who was born in "G" precinct. 
Was born on the old family homestead two and one half miles North- 
west of Seward, July 81, 1867. 

Like other boys of the wilderness he chased rabbits and waded Blue 
river until old enough to go to school. Was educated in the Seward 
schools, studied pharmacy with Kettle and Gerke, then run a drug store 
for some years at Staplehurst and at Germantown. Febiuary 5, 1890, 
married Miss Laurilla Gibbs, at Germantown. Studied medicine and 
graduated at Cotner Medical College in the class of 1894, with the 
honors of his class. Took post graduate courses at Chicago as follows : 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 35 

Clinical school in 1898 and 1900, eye, nose and throat college in 1904. 
Located at Cortland, Nebraska, in March, 1894. He is examining sur- 
geon and member of the orders following : A. F. and A. M. , M. W. A. , 
A.O. U. W., W. O. W., Royal Highlanders, and O.E.8. Church home 
is with the Cortland Congregationalists. 

They have two children : LeGrande W. , Herschel D. 

December 1904 Dr. Cox sold out at Cortland. Since that time has 
taken post graduate courses at Royal London Ophthalmic hospital (More- 
fields, ) and Central London nose and throat hospital and also at the Chi- 
cago eye, ear, nose and throat hospital. Dr. Cox may be found over 
Bank of Commerce at 13, and O Streets, Lincoln, Nebr. 

GEORGE W. COLLAMORE 

An English born boy but thoroughbred American, born April 27, 
1851. Crossed the pond in 1853(pretty young for a long trip but he made 
it all right). The lad landed in Illinois, where in due time, September 
4, 1867, at Sycamore he won the heart and hand of Miss Cornelia Blood. 
She was born March 2?>, 1850, in Wisconsin. Mrs. Collaraore died at 
Qtica, Nebraska, March 23, 1880. To' their union were born five 
children, viz : Minnie, Luella, Maude, Leonard and George Collamore. 
Minnie is now Mrs. Arnold Zbinder. Maude is now Mrs. Charlie 
Marquis and Luella is now Mrs. David Hively. 

July 3,1881, Mr. Collamore married Miss Nellie J. Rogers, of Ruby, 
Nebi'ctska. who came to Seward County in childhood in 1878. They 
have born to them eight children, viz: William W. , Lewis L, Ethelyn, 
Arthur, now dead, Elmer, Achsah, Edward and Dean. The family 
came to the County in 1871 and located on a homestead seven miles 
north of Dtica and of course enjoyed many of the luxuries of frontier 
life, such as sod house, living on wind pudding, etc., having mail once 
in a long time, fording the creek and killing rattlers. Mr. Collamore 
is at this time the efficient marshal of Utica. He is a member of the 
A. F. and A. M. , also of the M. W. A. 

DR. HERSCHEL B. CUMMINS 

One of our most successful physicians, is to all intents and purposes 
a Seward boy, although born in Green County, Pennsylvania, in March, 
1859. Lived in Washington County, West Virginia, six years in his 
early boyhood. Then with his father's family came vVest to Henderson 
County, Illinois, where the lad attended school. The family came- to 
Seward in 1874. He soon became acquainted with Dr. Woodward, for 
whom he worked tending and driving the Doctor's team, and finally 
took a notion that he would like to be a doctor, which Dr. Woodward 
encouraged. So under his care the lad began the study of medicine 
and did chores to pay his way. He determined to make a success and 
sought ways and means to take a university course, which he com- 
pleted in the class of 1885, graduating with honors. Returned to 
Seward, practiced for all these years with marked success. Since 



36 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



finishing his course he has taken several post graduate courses and has 
now for many years tilled the chairs of physiology, histology, and 
hygiene, and for the last five years lectured on practice with much 
credit in the Lincoln Medical College. Has filled the office of County 




Dr. H, B. Cummins 

physician. Was elected and served with much credit as representative 
in the legislature in the session of 1900 and 1901, in the 19th senatorial 
district. 

Married Miss Jennie Ritchie at Seward in 188(5. Mrs. Cummins 
was born in Illinois. She proved a model wife and mother. To them 
were born two boys, Herschel B. and Harry, both yet at the parental 
home. Mrs. Cummins died Oct. 19, 1901. She was very highly respected 
wherever known. Dr. Cummins is a charter member of the State 
Eclectic ^Medical Society, an Odd Fellow, a Knight of P^^thias and a 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



37 



Modern Woodman. He takes a decided interest in all these fraternities. 
Was at one time president of the State Eclectic Medical Societj'. 

Has been a member of the board of education where he took a very 
active part. Is one of the leaders in the Popnlist party and takes great 
interest in pushing its claims to popular favor. Was appointed in 1897 a 
member of the state board of health. and after a term of three years, had 
to resign when elected to the House. Pretty good for a poor Seward boy. 




Mrs, H. B, Cummins 



ELMER E. CUMMINS 

Born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, November 14, 1861. 
Came to Warren County, Illinois, at Monmouth in his early childhood, 
but had to seek a better place in Nebraska and in 1874 we find the lad 
at Seward where he was educated and married. Married October 5, 
1891, to Miss Ida M. Weatherby. She was a Missouri girl transplanted 
to Seward soil when a child and received her education in our 
city schools. They have three children, viz., Beatrice, Elizabeth 
and Cecil. 

Mr. Cummins was many years engaged in the oil trade but is now 
engaged in the windmill and pump business, and is also owner and 



38 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



operator of a dray line in Seward. He is a rustler in business, 
member of the Highlander fratex-nal order. 

Later: Mr. Cummins is in the oil trade in Lincoln. 



Is a 




General Jacob H. Culver 

Adjutant General of Nebraska. 'Vas born in Mercer Count}', Ohio, 
in 1845. His parents moved to the territory of Wisconsin when Jacob 
was only two years old. The familj' settled in the pine woods of 
Cheboygan County and engaged in the lumber business. The lad 
received his education in the primitive common schools of that wild 
land, and at the tender age of sixteen he heard the mutterings of the 
coming storm and his young soul was all on fire and at the first oppor- 
tunity he enlisted in Company K, first Wisconsin volunteers as drummer 
boy, September 17, 1861. serving one year in that capacity and at the 
battle of Perryville, the color bearer being killed, Jacob dropped the 
drum and grabbed the fiag and bore it ;',loft in triumph and continued 
to carry it through the service, and was mustered out with his regi- 
ment. He was in the sanguinary battles of Chaplain Hills, Cbicka- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 39 

mauga, Mission Ridge. Lookout Mountain and Chattanooga and also in 
the Atlanta campaign. Returning from the war he entered the Wis- 
consin University in 1866. 




J. H. Culver, Drummer Boy 

Was elected engrossing cleik in IHOU. and the same year came to 
Nebraska and made Milford his home and has been closely identified 
with its interests from that day to the present. The hrst we learn ot 
him at his new home was drawing a map for the newly organized 
County of Hamilton, for the officials. A teacher in the pulilic schools 
and then as Milford 's jiostmaster. Then he formed a partnership with 
H. Gr. Parsons antl commenced the i)ublication of the Blue Valley 
Record, which was Milford's first and we think its best newspaiier. In 
1873 the Record was consolidated with the Daily Leader, of Lincoln, 
Nebraska, which Sirs Culver and Parsons brought up to a paying basis. 
In 1874 Mr. Culver sold his interest and returned to Milford and 
bought an interest in the Milford flouring mills, with J. L. Davison. 
He continued with the mill until it was sold to Johnson, Perry 



40 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA' 

Company, in 1879. Mr. Culver helped to organize Winslow Post of 
G. A . R. number fifty-six, and was its first commander. In 
1878 he married Miss Ada I. Davison and they are the happy parents of 
five children, Clarence C. Elwin E. , Fred D. , Harry H. and Lula. 

They were among the organizers of the Congregational church at 
Milford. Was one time vice-president of the Morris Lock Company of 
Seward. 

Was also for a time a stock farmer, at another time a coal dealer. 
He is one of the most widely known of our citizens and is wonderfully 
active in pushing public enterprises of his town and county. His zeal 
knows no bounds. When he sets his head to any enterprise, such a 
word as fail is unknown in his vocabulary. Through his determined 
will power the great mill was established. He was largely instrumen- 
tal in securing to Milford and the county the Atchison and Nebraska 
railroad. He was responsible for the locating of the soldier's home and 
the industrial home at Milford. He is a man of pronounced views, never 
afraid to speak his sentiments. Is an uncompromising republican in 
politics and a radical temperance man. His career would suggest that 
he is exceedingly fond of a soldier's life, but an intimate acquaintance 
proves the reverse. He is fond of home, loves peace, even if he has to 
fight for it, and has been a soldier from a sense of duty. Has for many 
years been a prominent figure in the state militia. 

When the war oroke out he lost no time in offering his sword to the 
government. Was a captain and served through the Philippine war 
with much credit. 

MILTON D. CAREY 

This young attorney, who came to Seward in 1891, was born in cold 
Minnesota, in Filmore County, in 186:5, Feb. 24th, but it was too chilly 
for his young blood and while a lad of five summers he went to Hamil- 
ton Co., Iowa. After a nine year stiuggle of college life he graduated 
at De Pauw LTnivei'sity at Greencastle. 

In 1894 he returned to Hamilton Co., where he married Miss Tersa 
Maxwell, who was raised at that home place but educated at Dixon, Ills. 
Mrs. Carey is a lady of fine attainments and has proved a valuable 
citizen of our city. In social circles and charitable works she takes 
great interest. She is a member of the Woman's Club and is a work- 
ing member of the Congregational chiirch. 

Mr. Carey has just finished serving his second term as county 
attorne}' with credit. 

In politics Mr. Carey has committed his fortunes to the Populist 
party and is considered a stalwart and uses his fluent tongue on every 
stump, to the entire satisfaction of his friends. Is becoming quite 
popular in his profession, and has had part in many important cases, 
including the great church trial of which our esteemed Rev. Father 
Murphy is a party. 

He is a member of the Modern Woodmen. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



41 




00 







■ 



42 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

JACOB B. COCJRTRIGHT 

One that helped to lay the foundations in "N" Precinct, was born 
among the rocky hills of Lucerne County, Pa., in October, 1827, but 
found his way to Illinois, Lee County, in 1840, when it was wild prairie. 

At Dixon, on the banks of the beautiful Rock River, Jacob found 
Catherine Flack. She was born in November, 1822, in Blaine 
County, Pa. They raised eight children, viz: Eli, Henry, Ira. Sarah 
C. Wertman, Maggie A., James H.. Marv E. and Charles L. 

Mr. Courtright came to Seward County in 1874 and located in the 
eastern part of "N" Precinct, where he did his full share in 
developing that nevv land. He took great delight in the development 
of the fruit industry, and on another page will be found an able article 
from his pen on that subject, written many years ago. Mr. and 
Mrs. Courtright have finished their work and gone to their rest, "Full 
of years and good works." Mr. Courtright was a member of the A. 
F. and A. M. Church home was with the Evangelical Lutherans 

LEWIS G. CASTLE 

Was a soldier boy that had plenty of experiene. He enlisted in Co. 
A, 4th Wisconsin Vol. Infantry. He was with Ben Butler at New 
Orleans when the famous order was given that brought our southern 
sisters to terms. Was at Baton Rouche, at Port Hudson and Vicks- 
burg. Was on the famous Yazoo River expedition where the little 
wooden fleet ran into the rebel ram shielded with railroad iron. One 
vessel on which Mr. Castle was doing service, nineteen men out of 
twenty-one were killed in the one engagement. 

Mr. Castle was married to Miss Emugene ^I. Brant, Nov. 10, 
1870, at Whitewater, Wis. She was born May 8th, 1848, at Lima, Wis. 
They have one son, Lewis H. 

Mr. and Mrs. Castle came to Seward county in May, 1871. and set- 
tled in "L" Precinct. 

He belongs to the Masonic Fraternity and the Woodmen of the 
World and "G. A. R. 

LEANDER S. CALLAHAN 

A man who has gone through enough of the rough and tumble of 
life that the incidents of his career worthy of note would till a whole 
volume. 

The 7th of Oct. , 1838, in Tompkins county. New York, Leander saw 
the light. 

The family moved to Alleghany County, where Leander grew to 
manhood. 

Enlisted in Co. E, 1st New York Dragoons, in 13th Volunteers, in 
18()2, and was made Sergeant, and in December following promoted to 
2nd Lieutenant, June. 1863. 1st Lieutenant, and Dec. 5th, 1864, to Captain 
and Brevet Major, and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel, March 3lst, 1865, by 
recomraondation of Gen. Talbert. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 43 

Mr. Callahan participated in forty-four battles, besides numerous 
skii-mishes, commencing at Deserted Courthouse and ending at Appo- 
mattox. Was wounded three times; slightly once in the neck, once in 
the leg. and again in the arm. Was a guest of the notorious Mosby 
for eight weeks and enjoyed to the full the hospitality of the rebel 
chieftan, where he was permitted to trade his neat officer's uniform 
for a worn and tattered garb of some dead rebel. He was also a guest 
for eight weeks at the famous Hotel de Libbie, where buggy pea soup 
was served. He can tell you all about how nicely our boys fared in 
that hostlery of the South. What was left of him was exchanged in due 
time and his regiment was mustered out at Rochester, New York, July 
19th. I860 Mr. Callahan was married in 1859, to Miss Annie M. Smith, 
of Angelica, New York. She was born April 5, 1842. She was left to 
struggle for life alone while her husband was following the Hag to 
victory in the South. There was born to them one daughter, Margaret 
H. They have two grandchildren, Leander and Lizzie M., both with 
the old folks. 

Mr. and Mrs. C. are members of the Congregational Church. He 
is a Mason. 

The family came west in 1867. 

Has been postmaster in Germantown for eight yars. 

CAPT. ROBERT T. COOPER 

One of the most gentlemanly and big-hearted men, was born in 
Stevenson County, 111^. , near where this author perambulated. He swam 
in the old Pecatonica, chased the cows, and fished, in his boyhood days. 
Born in 1842,and amidst these beautiful surroundings grew to manhord. 
In 1861 he cauget sight of the star spangled banner and heard the drum 
beat, and of course he enlisted at the first opportunity in the 46th Ills. 
Infantry, Co. B. In a short time he earned the star of 2nd Lieutenant, 
then the First Lieutenant and in 1865 was promoted to the Captaincy; 
was discharged in 1866. The young man returned to his native home 
and was honored twice by Stevenson County as treasurer, 1869 and 
1871. He came to Seward in 1874 and his first work here was to build 
Ihe Cooper and Henderson mills, two miles south of the city. 

He helped to organize the G.A.R. Post No. 3. Was in 1881 elected 
County Treasurer of Seward County and re-elected in 1883. Was 
defeated for County Clerk in 1885. but triumphantly elected in 1887, over 
the same opponent. 

Is a strong and uncompromising republican from his youth. He is 
a man of good parts, generous and obliging, wide awake in all 
worthy enterprises. The fall of 1887 brought him many favors and 
triumi)hs. First he gained favor with a splendid woman. Miss Emma 
D. Brenizer, and married her Sept. 24th. Next he was voted a gold 
headed cane for good looks, then voted the clerkship of the County in 
November. Pretty well done for one season. Mrs. Cooper died in 
March, 1893. To them were born two children, one died in infancy 
and the lovely girl of five years died shortly afterwards. 



44 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

FRANK F. CONELEY 

An Irish American boy bom in Washington County, New York, 
Oct. 20, 1862. The family worked their way westward and landed in 
Seward County in 1873 and settled in "F" precinct on what is yet 
known as the old Coneley farm. Married May 8th, 1885, to Miss 
Louisa McGrath. She was born March Iftth. 18(38, at LaSalle, Illinois. 
Children born, viz: Frank, Clara. Leo. Ernest. Clyde, (Mary and 
Lizzie died in infancy) and Vincent. 

Mr. Coneley owns a good farm. Church home is with the Catholics. 
Mr. Coneley buried his mother in July, 1895, and his aged father, 
Patrick Coneley. in March, 1903. The old man was ninety years old. 

MARTIN CASTLE 

One of the pioneers of "C" Precinct was born April 12th, 1849, in 
Mercer Co , Ills., where he remained on his father's farm until grown, 
when he beheld the bright western star and took the trail that led to 
Seward Co. and to fortune. He found an excellent homestead in Sec. 
34, "C" Town, and captured it in 1870. He batched it and improved 
the farm and after awhile concluded that man should not live alone. 
So Mart proposed to Miss Emma Burhans and as Mart was a pretty 
good bachelor, Emma said yes (of coui-se). They were married March 
14th, 1878. She was a Wisconsin girl, born in Sauk Co. , Dec. 25th, 18(51, 
and came with her parents to Seward Co. when a child Their children 
are not yet named. Martin belongs to the United Workmen and the 
M. W. A. Church home is with the Presbyterian people at Staplehurst. 

DIEDRICH BANKERS 
One of our oldest citizens who located in the Middle Creek Wilder- 
ness, July. 18(i9. on homestead section 26 "I" Town, where he has 
helped to make the waste places glad. Was born in Hanover, Germany, 
December 21, 1843. At twenty-four he crossed the briny deep and made 
his home at Fondulac, Wisconsin, in 1867. From appearance of things 
we take it that his best girl led the way to Nebraska. In Nebraska 
City. October 17, 1869, he married Miss Annie Mej^er. She was born 
in Hanover and came to this country in her young girlhood. • Born 
Seiitomber 20, 1844. They have eight children and one died in infancy. 
Names are as follows: Margaret, now Mrs. John Klindtworth, Annie, 
Christopher. Mary, now Mrs. W. PoUman, Minnie, John, Louisa and 
Caroline. ISIr. Dankers served in the Hanovarian army in the war with 
Prussia and was in the battle of Langen Salza. He has served the 
people of our county ten years as supervisor, eight years from "I" 
precinct and two years from the fifth district. He is a man of wide 
influence and a first class citizen. Church home is with the Lutherans. 

CAPTAIN JOHN S. DILLENBECK 

A New York boy that took Greeley's advice and never rested till he 
found the trail that led to Nebraska, was born in Jefferson County, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



45 



January 19, 1841, just after the log cabin and hard cider campaign. 
What time the lad was not in school he spent in the ordinary pursuits 
of the farmer boy, picking stones and hauling them on a stone boat, 
raking hay with a hand rake, in the stumpy meadows and husking corn 
in the barn winter evenings. 




J. S. Dillenbeck 

While yet a lad of twenty, he heard the drum beat calling to arms 
and in 1861 he enlisted and was sent to Virginia under General 
McClellan and was at Chancellorsville, Second Bull Run, Antietam and 
Mannassas Junction. Enlisted in the 20th New York cavalry and was 
soon promoted to the 2nd lieutenancy with Company B, then in January, 
1865, was promoted to the first lieutenancy and assigned to Company L 
and just before his final discharge was breveted captain. When the 
war was over, Captain returned to the old home and to the best girl he 
had left behind him, and December 25, 1867, was married to Miss 
Lizzie Gates, of Washington County, New York. She was born at 
Waltham, Massachusetts, January 19, 1849. 

There were born seven children. Three died in infancy and four 
are yet at home, viz: John W. , Lydia M., Wilford L. . and Maude E. 
The family came to Seward County in May 1878 and took a homestead 
in "P" precinct and since that date captain Dillenbeck has proved a 
wide wake, enterprising citizen. Has a long time been much interested 



46 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



in the County Agricultural Society and is at this writing a leading 
member of the board of County supervisors. Some years ago gold was 
discovered on the Captain s iand, which we will notice particularly in 
another article. 




Mrs. J. S.Dillenbeck 

We note that Captain Dillenbeck had some honors at his old home 
where he vvas elected sheriff and served four years in Saratoga County. 
He was also in the mercantile business for a number of years. 

He came from old revolutionary stock. His maternal grandfather, 
George Lintiner, was a soldier of the revolution. INIrs. Dillenbeck traces 
her ancestry back to the Mayflower and Plymouth rock. She is an 
amiable and intelligent lady of New England culture, where she spent 
a number of years as teacher, after receiving a thorough education 
at Charlestovvn. Massachusets. 



HON. GEORGE A. DERBY 

One of the very earliest settlers in "E" precinct, was born March 
5, 18^0, in Licking County, Ohio, where he grew to manhood and 
married Miss Miranda H. Brown, March 1, 1843. She was a native of 
Vermont born in Orange County, January 1844. They were the parents 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



47 



of fourteen children, twelve of whom lived to he men and women, viz : 
Orin A., Emily E. , died at eighteen. Marilla N., now Mrs. S. M. 
Brown, AlonzoF. , Clara E., late Mrs. C. S. Stewart, Mercy A., now 
Mrs. H. Vanderboof, George G., Frank N., Scott B. , now deceased. 




Hon. G. A. Derby • 

The next two died in early infancy. William S. , now dead, Minnie E., 
now Mrs. R. B. Carter, and Roderick, now dead. Mr. Derb}- came to 
the vicinity where Utica now stands and opened a farm in 1872. The 
reader is kindly referred to the history of Utica for much of Mr. 
Derby's life work. Mrs. Derby died April 29, 1893, and Mr. Derby, 
full of years and full of labors, followed to the long home July 12, 1901. 
He was a faithful member for many years of the I. O. O. F. 

The M. E. church was the family church home. Mr. Derby was 
a very valuable citizen of the county for nearly thirty years. 



HON. WILLIAM R. DAVIS 

One of the oldest residents of Nebraska and also one of the oldest 
and certainly one of the most respected citizens of Seward County. Was 
born of humble parentage in Yadkin County, Noi'th Carolina, November 
26, 1824. 

In that Southern land the boy bad but meagre opportunities to 
secure an education. It is unnecessary for us to tell the thousands of 
his acquaintances that Mr. Davis, by dint of his own indomitable will 



48 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



and perseverance encircled as he was in his j'outh and young manhood, 
by every discouragement, poverty, a poor community, illiterate, and 
poor environments of every kind, but for all that he became a most 
thoroughly intelligent man and a man of affairs. 

His life work even in Nebraska, if proijerly told, would fill a volume 




Mrs. G. A. Derby 



even larger than this. He married Miss Margaret A. Bohannan of his 
native place. Of this lady we are permitted to know but little, but we 
are certain that she must have been a noble wife and good mother, 
sharing with her young husband the hard labor and trials incident 
to the removal from the old home to Nebraska, then a wilderness. The 
grand impress she left upon her young family tells the story most 
eloquently. Children born of this union were eight, two ot whom died 
in infancy. Rebecca, now Mrs. J. N. Beaty ; Anice, now deceased the 
former wife of Mac Towner of Ulysses, Nebraska ; Martha, now deceased 
the widow of Jasper Roberts, now also deceased. Abner Y. , and Major 
A. V. , now of Seward and Josephine, now Mrs. A. C. Hull of Hastings, 
Nebraska. The young couple moved all the long and weary way with 
an ox team to Iowa in 1852. In 1857 they settled at Rock Bluflf, Cass 
County, Nebraska. They were among the noble band of pioneers who 
first settled the infant territory. His worth was soon recognized by his 
neighbors and was elected a member of the third session of the legisla- 
ture. His work was so faithful that he was re-elected to the fourth and 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



49 



again to the fifth sessions. In the svimmer of 1862 he was appointed 
assistant assessor of internal revenue and in that capacity traversed all 
the- settled portions of the territory. He enlisted in the army in 1864, 
December 10, 1864. His wife died while he was at the front and at his 




Hon, W. R. Davis 

request he was discharged under special order number 155, April 17, 
1865. After his return home he was immediately appointed assistant 
assessor of internal revenue in the Plattsmouth district. While crossing 
the plains in his official work the author of this book became acquainted 
with Mr. Davis. In following a blind trail across the Middle Creek 
prairie, he became lost and blundered onto our cabin at Salt Basin, at 
eleven o'clock at night. He was well nigh starved so that a shelter 
was welcome, where i"est and food was to be had. 

August, 1866, he married Miss Hannah C. Colman, who j-et lives 



50 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

and is a resident at their old home in Seward. To them were born : 
Frank R., now of Grand Junction, Colorado; Nellie R., yet at Seward. 
In the spring of lS(jS the family removed to Seward where we had a 
name but no town. In company with his son in-law, J. N. Beaty, he 
opened the first store in the new town and it was the second store in 
the county. They continued in the general merchandise Imsiness under 
the firm name of Beaty and Davis most of the time till 1878. He 
remained a very active business man up to the date of his last sickness. 
lu 1899, with the assistance of his sons he laid the foundation of the 
great grocery house that yet bears his name. 

Through all the long years of his residence Mr. Davis was a most 
valuable citizen, a good neighbor, kind friend and worthy Christian 
gentleman. In all laudable enterprises he was ever ready to render all 
possible assistance. He united with the M. E. church when quite 
young and became a most earnest and faithful worker for his Lord and 
Master. He was, by his church, licensed to preach but was never in 
the regular work of the ministry although frequently preaching as a 
local minister. Was an earnest champion in the temperance field 
frequently speaking on temperance and kind];ed subjects, with excellent 
results. 

He had a most honorable part in advancing the development of the 
city and county, devoting much time ana energy to many public enter- 
prises and charities. On the 28rd of July, 1899, full of years and full of 
honoi-s, the Master called him home. 



ABNKR Y. DAVIS 

Claims to be a native of Jasper County, Iowa, where he was born 
December 29, 1856 but he came to Nebraska so long ago that he can't 
remember when. The first he knew iie was down among the hills at 
Rock Bluffs in Cass County where he spent his early youth. At twelve 
we find the lad in Seward where he grew to manhood. He was among 
the very first to fish in the river here, to chase the cows and the rabbits 
over these prairies. Was educated in the city schools. Along about 
1876, Abner went to the mountains where he spent four years looking 
for the yellow metal. He found some and returned to the old home 
where he took interest with E. H. Polley in the jewelry business for 
five years. In the meantime Father Simpson took Abner's best girl 
away off to western Kansas but Abner followed up and captured his 
prize January 23, 1881, when he and Elizabeth Simpson were married in 
Decatur County, Kansas. 

She was born February 28, 1859. in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, 
and came to Seward in childhood. They are now the parents of five 
children, viz. Ruth F. , now Mrs. George Harvey; Laura M., Ethel C. 
Major S. and William R. Mr. Davis resided on a homestead in 
Decatur County, Kansas, for three years when he returned to the place 
of his first love and took an interest in the grocery house of W. R. 
Davis & Sons, where he has been interested now for over twenty years. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 51 

He ih a member of the A. F. and A. M. and the A. O. U. W 
Church home of the family is with the Presbyterians. 

MAJOR A. V. DAVIS 

Who came to Seward a barefoot boy before Seward had anything in 
the way of improvements but surveyois' stakes, was born in Cass 
County, Nebraska, May 10, 18«1. 

He got his first schooling in the old log cabin where he had lots of 
fun with the other l)oys in this "wild and woolly west." Major always 
did like fun and he had plenty of it. 

Was educated in the Seward schools and while yet a boy in 187') he 
helped his father in laying the foundation of the great grocery house 
of the present. 

Was married to Miss Lillian Davies, June 20, 1894. She was born 
in England May 24, 18(58. Major, as we all call him, is a rustler in 
business and is one of those who have been longest in the merchantile 
business in Seward. 

GEORGE DAVIS 

Came to Seward County when a lad of eighteen and helped his 
father open a farm on section 22, in "J" precinct and here he still 
lives. He was born in Richland County, Wisconsin, November 13, 
1861. One fine day in the fall of 1897, October 21, he sti'ayed off to 
Lincoln wheie he had found his gril, Miss Hannah J. Statt, and was 
married. 

She was an Iowa girl born in Wright County, March 19, 1877. She 
came to Nebraska in 1897, probably just to accommodate George. They 
have one little boy, Herman H. He still lives on the old farm upon 
which the family settled in 1879 and George knows how to take good 
care of it and has it well improved and he is at this time engaged in 
breeding Duroc Jersey swine, of which he has a fine herd of thorough- 
breds. 

JOHN DALTON 

The 1)oy that came might}' near being an Irishman but who is a 
genuine American all the same. He was really, and no mistake about 
it, born among the bogs of old Ireland, June 24, 1853, and it happened 
in this way: John's father and mother were visiting in Ireland to re- 
cuperate health when John came along. He did not stay long, but 
came home with the old folks when a babe, to LaPorte, Indiana. Here 
John grew to manhood and learned the carriage ironer's trade and 
worked at that trade until he came to Seward County in 1878. 

He bought a farm in section 19, in "A" precinct, then happened 
to remember the girl he had left behind bira and made haste to La 
Porte, where he married Miss Nora A. Condon, February 10, 1880. 

She was a native hoosier, born January 22, 1856. The young folks 
took a pleasure ride to Nebraska and commenced their life with us. 
They have five children, viz: Bernard W., Thomas W.. Erma R., Ella 



52 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

M. , and Nona C. Mr. Dalton has been assessor in ''A" jirecinct one 
term and fonr in "B" precinct. Was chairman of the county board of 
supervisors five years. Was on the board of directors of the Agricul- 
tural Society, was live stock commissioner under Governor Holcomb. 
Mr. Dalton is a Modern Woodman. His church home is with the 
Catholics. Mr. Dalton is a thoroughly wide awake citizen and has 
served his county well. He owns a splendid farm near the village of 
Bee. 

DR. CHARLES W. DOTY 

Was born at Darlington, Wisconsin, June 10th, 1861, and spent 
his boyhood days there and June 4, 1891, he married Miss Jane C. 
Schreiter. The young doctor came to Nebraska in 1882, before he took 
his biide and had commenced his practice at Cordova, in 1888. He out- 
grew Cordova in a short time and moved to a more promising held at 
Beaver Crossing where he has now i)raeticed his profession for eleven 
years. 

They have two children, viz: Helen and David. Charles commenced 
his career in the west as drug clerk at Friend then studied medicine, 
graduating at Rush Medical College in 1888, and has for years 
been very successful and enjoys a large and growing practice. 
He is United States pension examiner. He is president of Seward 
County Medical Society. Has been twice coroner of the county. Was 
first president of the Seward County Telephone Company. He is a 
wide-awake fellow, to say the least. 

JAMES A. DOWDING 

An English lad born at Monmouthshire May 19, 1858. When eight 
years old crossed the great ocean with his parents and found a new home 
at Bnda, Bureau Cftnnty, Illinois. There he remained during his boyhood 
and where he found Miss Emma S. Roberts, an English girl, who was 
born May 'SO, 18()3, at Canar Pion, England. They were married at 
Buda, April 24, 1880, and seven years later they found the Nebraska 
trail and landed in Seward, October 2!}, 1887. They have four children, 
viz: Rubie M., Lewis E. , Nellie M. and William A. 

Mr. Dowding lost the Nebraska trail for awhile among the ever- 
lasting hills of Marengo County, Iowa, but after awhile he found it 
and landed safely at Seward. Mr. Dowding is a most competent and 
skilled jeweler and has a neat and tasty shop in Seward, whei'e his 
friends will always find the same genial and courteous gentleman. He 
is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and also member of the 
Tribe of Ben Hur, 

THOMAS L. DAVIES 

Was an English boy born in Gloucester.shire, October 20, 1859, but 
found America at twelve and by degrees he worked westward until in 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



53 



1883 we find the 3'onng man at Utioa where his parents located and 
where his father located the first banking house of the village. (The' 
CJtica Bank. ) Thotnas was a frequent visitor at Seward where he 
found Miss Nellie, sister of Hon. R. E. Dunphy, and June 14, 1888, 
they were married. Mrs. Davies was born at Darlington, Wisconsin, 
January, 18()0. 

They have two children, Reginald E. and Dorothy L. Mr. Davies 




James P. Dunham 

was thoroughly schooled in the lumber trade and controls a very com- 
plete and extensive yard at Utica. 

He is a member of the A. F. and A. M. Tne church home is with 
the Presbytei-ians. ' Mr. Davies is classed among the leading citizens of 
Utica. 



JAMES P. DUNHAM 
Twice councilman and twice mayor of the city of Seward. Was 
born in Crawford, New Jersey, February 8, 18-53. At twenty he found 



54 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

the way to the Western prairies and settled down to business as contract- 
or and builder at Mendota, Illinois, where he married Miss Emma E. 
McGinnis, December 6, 1877. The following April we find the young 
people at Sevvaid, Nebraska. 

Mrs. Dunham was born at Rome. New York, January 7, 1854, and 
came to Mendota in her girlhood. 

Two children came to bless the new western home, viz : Leila M. 
and Frances A., both yet at home with the widowed mother. Frances 
is a teacher in the city schools Mr. Dunham was a prominent con- 
tractor and builder and has left many monuments of his handiwork in 
the city and county, among which is the splendid M. E. church edifice 
in Seward. In later years he established the Seward planing mill. His 
life was an active one 

He served the city two terms as councilman and was serving the 
second term as mayor when death called him, October BO, 1902. He was 
a member of ttie I. O. O. F. and Encampment. He was also a member 
of the M. W. A. and United Workmen. 

MICHAEL DUNIGAN 

Was a son of the emerald isle, born in 1836. Mike had too much 
love of freedom in his soul to spend his life in a land ruled with a rod 
of iron. At seventeen he had caught a glimpse of our broad stripes and 
bright stars and he determined to have a home beneath their ample 
folds. He came to this country in 1853, traveled over several states and 
located in Knox County, Illinois, in 1856. 

Mike loved his new home and was willing to fight for it and in 
1862 he enlisted in Company D, 64th Illinois infantry and was in all the 
sanguinary engagements of his regiment. Was with Sherman from the 
first and followed him to the sea. 

In 1871 he located on the present home place in "B" precinct and 
was among the first to settle in that locality. 

Mr. Dunigan found Miss Mary E. Shumaker in Illinois in 1866 after 
he returned from the war and they were married. They have nine 
children, viz: Jacob N., Mary B., now^ Mrs. S. J. Person; Emma C. , 
now Mrs. N. T. Hara.i'ain ; Katy, Delia, now Mrs. Harry Church; Effa 
M., now Mrs. H. Church; Clara M. , John H. , Benjamin H. , and Nellie 
M. 

Mr. Dunigan served his precinct one term as supervisor and the 
county ixnder the old regime three terms as county commissioner and 
this speaks volumes for him as he is an unswerving democrat and was 
elected twice by a strong republican county. He is universally consid- 
ered an enterprising, valuable citizen, very liberal in his dealings and 
well respected. 

He loves his adopted country Vmt never forgets the wrongs suffered 
by his native land. He is a successful farmer. The village of Bee is 
located on part of his farm. He is a charter member of Oliver Lodge 
number 38, A. F. and A. M. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 55 

HERMAN DIERS 

Is one of the first and certainly one of the foremost and successfixl 
merchants of Seward. Was born March 23, 1845, at Rutteb Oldenberg, 
(xermany. At twelve j^ears of age Herman somehow caught sight of 
"Old Glory, " else he saw the bright star in the West and he was ready 
and anxious to brave the dangers of the great sea, that lie might have 
a home in the great free America. In 1857 Herman landed in Clayton 
County, Iowa, with his parents where he grew too manhood. In 18(59 
he found the trail which led to Seward County and in the spring of 1870 
he built a frame store building on the' corner where his present fine 
brick now stands and commenced that long and successful career as a 
merchant. From that day to this the story of his life is an important 
link in the history of Seward. He is ahvays to the front in matters of 
l)ublic enterprise His mercantile career has brought him fortune and 
friends. He has been a leader in the work of his church Has taken a 
great interest in the Seward German College. 

In 1871 Mr. Diers found his noble helpmeet in life. Miss Anna C. 
Shulte, and was married April 4th near the site of the old stone church 
on Middle Creek by the Rev. Carl T. Gruber. 

Mrs. Diers was an Ohio girl born in Aglaize County. December 8, 
1849. They have six children, viz: William F. , who died when six 
years and eight months old; Louis H. , John Herbert, Theodore C. , 
Elvin F. , and Anna M. 

Mr. Diers has been frequently honored with places of trust. Has 
now retired from active business and is enjoying his green old age, 
surrounded by hundreds of friends. In 1878 he built the fine business 
block that uiers Brothers now occupy. 

We heartily wish that Seward County had a very large herd of such 
Deers as Herman. 

WILLIAM Q. DICKENSON 

A young man who caine to Seward County in 1878 and settled on a 
farm south west of Seward and soon became so ]3opular that he held the 
honoi'able position of supervisor for about fourteen \ears. William was 
born of highly respected parents at Danvers, in McLean Countv, Illinois 
in 1853. Married Miss Celle A. Warlon, in 1881. Mrs. Dickenson is a 
most worthy lady of very high standing in Seward where they made 
their home for a number of years. Having no children, they have 
adopted the young daughter of Dr. Skeede, Bessie, a bright girl of nine 
summers. Mr. and Mrs. Dickenson take great delight in her advanc- 
ment and education. 

CHARLES A. DAVIDSON 

A Milford boy born October 17, 1874. Was raised on his father's 
farm one and a half miles east of town. Was educated in the village 
schools. In his youth saw much of pioneer life and drank to the full of 
its joys and sorrows. Married May 29, 1901, to Miss Delia B Hughes, 



56 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

an Iowa girl who came to Milford in her youth in 1886. They have two 
children, little Jones Perry and Gertrude Irene, just born to the happy 
parents the day the subscription to this book was taken, August 15,1904. 
Mr. Davidson resides on a farm one mile south of the village. 
Belongs to the Maccabees and has been its Commander; is also a United 
Workman. The family are members of the Congregational church. 

MARIN W. DIMERY 

One of the Seward County boys that has come to the front and will 
make his mark in the world. 

Was born January I'i, 1878, at the little old cross roads town, Beaver 
Cr(!ssing, at that time an outpost of civilization. His early youth was 
largely spent fishing m his father's mill pond and attending the public 
schools. After awhile he took a notion to become a lawyer and went to 
our state university and graduated in the Jaw department in the class ot 
1901 and was at once admitted to practice in all the courts of Nebiaska. 
Then he went to the Indian territory where after a rigid examination 
was admitted to practice in the United States Courts, in the spring of 
1903. He belongs to the I. O. O. F., A. F. and A. M. and R'-yal 
Highlanders. 

After a little wandering he returned to the home of his childhood 
and opened a law office. He is an ardent republican and wide aw alee 
to the interests of his party and state and at this writing candidate for 
the state senate fur Butler and Seward counties. He is a young rustler 
and if he is eletecd we will have a senator worthy the wide-awake 
people of these counties. He is an energetic citizen and will leave no 
stone unturned that will help his people. Mr, Dimery was elected by a 
large majority. 

RICHARD L. DIXON 

An English boy, born July 9, 1875, and found Seward in his early 
boyhood, at the tender age of six. Here he grew up and was educated 
in our schools and has become a pretty good American boy. In 1901. 
October 24, he married a native girl, Miss Marie Hageman. Sne was 
born on her father's homestead December 2(5, 1876. They have one little 
boy, William S. 

Mr. Dixon is a member of the A. O. U. W. Mr. Dixon is a grow- 
ing young man. 

JAMES P. DUNLAP 

Was a Missouri lad bnrn in Gascondade County, March 5,1845. His 
parents went to Illinois for fi while but returned to Missoiiri and 
remained until the war marie it a little too warm. He came to Nebraska 
and married Miss Christinna Campbell, February 22, 1870, in Saunders 
County. She was born in 1848 in Scotland. They have five children 
as follows: Nelson C. , Agnes, now Mrs. H. N. Ljnn ; Christiana, 
Patience, now Mrs. R. S. Boyd ; and Lewis. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 57 

The family located at Dwight in Butler County, in 1809. where in 
connection with general farming he began the nursery business and has 
furnished the farmers of Seward and Butler counties many beautiful 
orchards. Mr. Dunlap is a member of the A. F. and A. M. He 
belonged to the Home Guards in Missouri. 

HON. RODERICK E. DUNPHY 

From the wilds of Wisconsin Territory in Lafayette County, near 
Darlington, came our veteran carriage maker. He was born July 5, 
1848. Amid the wild surroundings of the new territory he spent his 
boyhood days and learned the blacksmith trade in his native county and 
in 1873 he went to the city of Rockford, Illinois, where he followed his 
trade. In 1872 he married Miss Elizabeth Gregory. April 11. She was a 
native of Devonshire. England. They raised two children, viz: Gay 
B. now Mrs F. Langworthy ; and Homer. Mrs. Dunphy died at 
Seward, Dpcember 21, 1886. Mr. Dunphy made his home in Seward in 
1879. where he opened a wagon and carriage shop, which business he has 
now conducted sucessfully twenty-five years. 

In 1892 he built the commodious two story brick shop and ware- 
house. 

June 28, 1888, Mr. Dunphy was again married to Miss May Mentzer, 
of Rockford, Illinois. She was born in Rockford March 23, 18Ti7, and 
came to Seward in 1880 and spent some years here as diessmakei but h;id 
returned to her native home. There have been born to them five 
children, viz: Nicholas R. , Robert P., and Hariet. Two died in 
infancy. 

Mr. Dunphy has served four years as councilman of our city. In 
1882 was elected state senator and was considered a very active and 
efficient member. He is at present a member of our school board and 
has lent his time largely to the building of our grand new temple of 
learning. He is a wide-awake democrat and is always a leader in the 
councils of his party. Mr. Dunphy is an enterprising valuable citizen, 
always ready to lend a helping hand in building up Seward and Sew^ard 
County. 

H. HOWEL DUPIN 

Came to life and light in a dugout five miles northwest of Seward 
October 30, 1870. He was truly a thoroughbred Nebraskan. Was edu- 
cated in the Seward schools and clerked many years for his father in the 
county clerk's office, also in the post office. 

Married Miss Marie Andrus November 6, 1895, at Seward. She 
was also born in the county at her father's homestead east of Seward , 
March 23, 1874. 

He accepted a position with Swift's Company at South Omaha in 
July, 1898, and has never yet been on a strike. He has better sense. 
He is a member of Alpha Camp No.l. at Omaha. The church home is 
Methodist. 



58 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



JOHN ERB 

Was a Canadian boy born in Perth County, February 2, 186fi. 
Came to ^lilford when a lad of twelve. November 27, 1889, he married 
Miss Mary A. Miller, at the Amish churt-h. She vv-as an Ohio girl, 
born May 3, IHfiT, in Holmes County. There were born to them six 
children, viz : Peter, now dead ; Sarah, Lizzie, John, Lewis and 
Mattie. 

Mr. Erb came to Seward County in 1878 and now lives two miles 
west of Milf'ord. Has been a fanner from the start. Church home is 
with the Amish Menonites. 




John Englehautt 

One of Milford's oldest and best business men. Was born in 
Bavaria, October 2:^, 1854. The parents came to this country when John 
was a young lad and settled in Buffalo, New York. There he grew to 
manhood and received his education. 

Sometime in the seventies he found his way to Crete, Nebraska, 
where he married Miss Hannah Hajek of Crete, in 1881. There were 
born to them three children, two of whom died in infancy and Louie, 
yet at the parental home. Mrs. Englehauft died seven years later and 
in 1889. February 28, he married Miss Louisa Gerstenberger, who was 
born at Davis, Stevenson County. Illinois in 1861. She came to Seward 
County in 1885. Mr. Englehauft came to Milford in 1879 and has from 
the start baen prominent in business circles, first as contractor and 
builder and for many years a lumber merchant, up to the time of his 
death. Was originator of the Fanners' and Merchants' Bank and was 
its first president. Was a Mason in high standing. He was a Woodman, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 59 

also a Workman. Ahva.ys a staunch republican in politics. Mr. Engle- 
hauft was a verj' valuable citizen. Died June 20. 1903, after a short but 
very painful illness. 

Mrs. Englehauft is a member of the Congregational church, also of 
the Rebeccas and the Eastern Star Lodge and the Royal Neighbors. 

GEORGE ENGLEHAUPT 

One of the very first settlei's in "N" precinct, was born September 
21, 1855, in Marshall County, Illinois. Came with his parents to the 
wilderness in 1864, when a lad of nine years. He had all sorts of exper- 
iences on this wild frontier, when hunting, fishing and holding Indians 
at bay was largely the business of life. April 8, 1897. George married 
Miss Etta M. Brown at his home on section 22, "N" town. She was 
born in Will County, Illinois, December 27. 1864. They have three little 
ones, viz: Jennie M.. Harry B. and Edna. 

Ml-. Englehaupt owns the old homestead of his father on the banks 
of the South Blue. 

HON. JOHN J. ENDICOTT 

Another of the young, brave fellows that dared to push out into the 
wilderness in 1871 and lay the foundations of a home and fortune John 
was born January 16, 1849, in Des Moines County, Iowa. Was left an 
orphan at eleven when he went to Indiana and remained till of age. 
He was the kind of lad to easily catch the western fever and at twenty- 
two we find him a Seward County citizen. By and by he somehow 
caught sight of a young Scottish girl in Saline County and December 
27, 1876, they were married. Miss Catherine Connell was born in Scot- 
land at Glasgow, February 28,1854, and came to Canada when an infant 
and to Nebraska when fifteen. They -are the parents of four children, 
three yet living, viz : EstelleE. , Herman J., Eva, died in infancy; and 
Myrtle A. Mr. Endicott settled on the present home farm, section 35, 
in "N" Town in 1871. He soon became prominent in political circles 
and in 1899 he was elected member of the house of represenatives. 

Mr. Endicott claims to be a democrat of the strictest sect. He has 
made quite a successful farmer and has by industry accumulated a neat 
little fortune. 

JOHN EVANS 
A furniture dealer at Beaver Crossing, was born in Chester County, 
Pennsylvania, in 1833; at ten he went to Maryland and a little later to 
Illinois. Married Miss Lonisa Hartn)an. Children born to them are 
Annie E. , now Mrs. E. Vanskike; Emma, now Mrs. M. D. Johnson; 
John L. , George A., James C. and Mamie, now Mrs. J. Calder. 

The family came to Nebraksa in 1879 and settled in 'K" precinct 
in 1879. Moved into the village in the spring of 1904. Mr. Evans is 
a wide awake genial old gentleman. Their church home is with the 
Evangelical people. 



60 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



CHARLES C. EVANS 

A most successful inventor, was born near Baltimore, Maryland, 
in 1859, July 25. Started westward in 1868 and halted in Bureau County, 
Illinois, until 1879, when he came to Beaver Crossing and farmed ten 
years, then was in the implement trade at Harvard for over three 
years, when he returned to Beaver Crossing and has been engaged in 
the windmill and pump business. Has lately invented a unique 
machine for putting down wells, that will revolutionize the well boring 
business. He h.is .iust completed fourteen wells for the Northwestern 
Railroad to the entire satisfaction of the company. We are pleased to 
give our readers a beautiful cut of this machine. 




C. C. Evans' Well Machine 



WILLIAM W. EVANS 

Was born at Danville, Pennsylvania, August 25, 1841. Moved with 
parents to Wilksbarre in early childhood. In 1848 they went to Duncan, 
west of Harrisburg, and there the boy grew to manhood, learned the 
puddler's trade, also the roller and refiner's trade. Eleven years later 
he went to Columbia and worked at his trade. He worked four years at 
Chester and later he worked on the north branch of the Susquehanna 
river. In 1872 he married Miss Isabel B. Bentz. To them were born 
six chiLlren. Charles F., Ralph G., Bertha A., who died March 10, 
1894: Uiihel C. , Esther E. , and Ara. 

• The family moved to Illinois in 1878 and to Saline County in 1879 
and opened a farm and in 188(i came to Beaver Crossing where he opened 
another farm. Came to Seward in 1896 and engaged in the draying 
business. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 61 

Mr. Evans is an industrious, kindhearted citizen. Is a member of 
the K. P. Lodge. Mrs. Evans was born in Lancaster County, Penn- 
sylvania. She is a member of the Lutheran church. 

EARL D. EAGER 

Was a Nebraska born boy that came to light at FuUerton, December 
25, 1879, but was on the look for a better place and found it at Beaver 
Crossing when two years old, where he has grown up and is now 
connected with the great Eager mercantile house. Earl captured one of 
the girls at the Crossing and was married June 9, 1899, She was born 
in Illinois, October 9, 1880. Mr. Eager is a member of the M. W. A. 
and Royal Highlanders. 

DAVID H. FIGARD 

Soldier and pioneer, farmer and treasurer. Was l)orn in Bedford 
County, Pennsylvania, July 10, 1841, where he grew to manhood amid 
the rocks, hills and coal banks. Was married to Miss Amy Anderson 
March 17, 1860. 

She was born in the same locality. The family consisted of five 
children. One died in infancy. Elizabeth, who grew to womanhood 
here but passed away in June 19,1897. Liicinda died in 1899. The two 
boys, Henry and Silas, are yet citizens of this locality. 

Mr. and Mrs. Figai"d came to Seward County in the spring of 1867 
and took a homestead in"F" precinct, where they resided until he was 
elected treasurer of the county in 1885, which office he held two terms. 
Mr. Figard «*nlisted in Company C, lB3d Pennsylvania regiment, August 
8, 1862, discharged May 26, 1863. 

He was quite an active member of the ti. A. R. Post No. 3, in 
Seward. ,Was also a prominent Odd Fello'.". He passed away February 
14, 1900, very suddenly, although he had been in poor health for .some 
years. 

SILAS FIGARD 

Here is a young man to the manor born. The son of D. H. Figard and 
was born on the old homestead four miles northwest of Seward. Silas 
was born in 1869. Worked on the farm and attended the country school 
during his boyhood. The family moved to Seward in 1885 and the boy 
helped his father in the county treasurer's office and afterward in the 
first national bank, later he spent four years in Chicago where he 
was employed in an electrical establishment. In 1901 became connected 
with the Seward dry goods and millinery house which establishment 
he, with Miss Anderson and Miss Kriljbler founded. He has stepped to 
the front as a business man. Became a member of the M E. church at 
an early age and has become a very active and valuable member, always 
ready for any Christian duty. He is a very liV)eral supporter of any- 
laudable enterprise in which the church or community is interested. 



62 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 




HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 63 

DAVID FEIGION 

A German that longed for a home in a better land and had the cour- 
age to In-eak away from the old environment and found a home with ua 
in Seward County in August 25, 1885. 

Mr. Feigion was born Octolier 31, 184:^), and married Miss Marie 
Trenkle, May 25, 1874, in Germany. She was born Deceiril)er 15, 1854 
Six children came to bless their home, viz: Frederick W., Charles W., 
Christian D. , Marie C. . Jacob J. and Herman D. The family located 
at Seward in 1885 but are now farming three miles southeast of the city. 
Mr. Feigion is a very intelligent and worthy citizen. Church home of 
the family is with the German Evangelical people at Seward. 

HENRY FIGARD 

Came pretty near having the honor of being a Seward County boy. 
Born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, in 1866 and landed here in the 
early spring of 1867. Grew up on his father's homestead and is so 
much in love with it that he still resides upon it and for many years 
has managed it quite successfully. His eduaction was gained in the 
common schools and the great school of the business world. He is a 
stock grower and dealer and seems to thoroughly understand nis busi- 
ness. Church home is with the M. E. people. 

JOHN VV. FIGARD 

Was born among the rocky hills of old Pennsylvania February 6, 1850, 
but when a lad of seventeen he found a way out of the woods and 
landed in Seward County in the eaily spring of 1867 and was one of the 
early pioneers of "F" precinct and although he had to wait four years 
to become of the proper age he secured a homestead on section 12 of 
that township. John worked as a farm hand and saved his money and 
improved his farm and after a while he got acquainted with Uncle 
Joseph Slonecker and asked for his daughter. So John and Emely were 
married Novemlier 15, 1876. She was born December, 1858, in Mc- 
Donough County, Illinois, and came to :Seward County in 1875 with her 
parents. John and Emely did pretty well as they are the parents of 
eleven childen as follows: Ernest L. , Charles E, Lutie M., Mary M., 
Joseph H., Ina F., Eva B., Jennie G., Phillip H., one unnamed son died 
in infancy, and Ruth E. 

The home is five and one half miles northwest of Seward. Mr. 
Figard has been an active member of the A. O. U. W. since 1893. At 
sixteen he united with the Church of God but there was no organiza- 
tion here of that church ;in 1891 he united with the United Brethren at 
Seward and is an active worker in the Masters vineyard. When John 
left the old home his sister presented him with an old time 8-cent piece 
which he has faithfully kept to the present, but once in the long ago he 
was compelled to pawn it for a postage stamj) to pay postage on a letter 
to the dear ones at home. He redeemed it in due time. John don't 
have to borrow three cents any more to pay postage. 



64 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

WILLIAM S. FORD 

Was a Kansas born boy that put in an appearance at Atchison, 
April 18, 1857. We suppose he took an active part with the Free State 
men. He moved to McHenry County, Illinois, to be I'aised, but some- 
how found his way to Neliraska in 1878 and located on section 2. Town 
12, Range 3, where he resided until 19U1, when he sold out and moved 
to Filmore County. He came with $200 wealth and left with some more 
than he brought. 

Married Miss Martha M. Clapp June 26, 1881, in Butler County. 
She was born April 11, 1863. in Coles Cc-unty. Illinois, and came to 
Nebraska in childhood, in 1867. They have eight children, viz: Will- 
iam. Verne R., Blanche M.. Bertha A., Clee J., Ray G. , Ethel M. , and 
a baby girl that died in infancy. Church home i>i with the U. B. folks 
and helped to organize the church at Pleasant Prairie in 1885, Rev. John 
J. Lohr pastor. Later the church was moved to Bee, where Mr. Ford 
was superintendent of Sabbath school fourteen years. 

GEORGE FOSTER 

Was a pioneer homesteader near the old walnut creek ranch in sec- 
tion 6, "N" Town, in September 1869. George was born on one of the 
blue clay hills of Butler County, Ohio, March 9, 1836. When a child 
his parents moved to Indiana. but at seventeen he took the back track. 
But the old hills had lost their charm for him and he turned his face 
westward and at twenty-one he found an Iowa girl, Miss M. J. Linch, 
and was married September 29, 1857, in Henry County, Iowa. She was 
born October 16. 1838, in Indiana. They had three children. One died 
in infancy and Cora D. , now Mrs. D. Smith; and Nancy E., now Mrs. 
B. A. Wash. 

Mr. Foster got to Iowa in time to enlist in the 4th Iowa cavalry and 
was made saddlery sergeant. He was at Vicksburg, Selma and Colum- 
bus, Georgia. 

Mrs. Foster died November 12, 19U1. Mr. Foster married the second 
wife, Mrs. Mary E. Ramey, of York, Nebraska. She was born Jan- 
uary 22, 1846, in Decatur County, Indiana. 

Mr. Foster is a member of the G. A. R. Family church home, 
Methodist. The old peoi'la have recently moved to Seward where they 
enjoy a neat and comfortable home 

THOMAS J. FOSTER 

Another of the sixty miners who came and helped to blaze the way 
for the multitude who followed. Thomas was born in Missouri in 1843, 
June 2, but sought the freer air of Illinois, at a tender age. Somehow 
his eye was turned westward and next we find him in Iowa in Davis 
County, then in Madison County and in 1869 he found the right place 
on a homestead near Beaver Crossing. While in Madison County, Iowa, 
he found in Miss Rebecca E. Cummins a good wife and was married in 
1865. They are the parents of seven children. One died in infancy ; 



HISTOJEIY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 65 

Sadie E., now Mrs. E^ Miller; Idella, now Mrs. F. Roland; Mary F. , 
now Mrs. George Evans ; Ora B. , Earl and Raymond, yet at home. 
Mr. Foster, yet only a lad, enlisted in Company C. 138th Illinois in- 
fantry and did good service. Has improved a splendid farm and is now 
trying to take life easy. Was in the implement and furniture trade at 
Beaver Crossing for fourteen years. Mr. Foster filed the complaint 
against Orlando Castler for the murder of Monroe at Seward. 

JOHN FLEENER 

Our principal egg and poultry dealer for many years. Was born in 
Des Moines County, Iowa, January 23, 1863. There he received a com- 
mon school education and as soon as he was of age he came to Page 
County, Iowa, where he married Miss Sadie Grafton. They came to 
Seward in 1894. He commenced handling poultry and eggs in 1895 and 
has done a large and prosjjerous business. Some months of the present 
year he has paid for these staples o\ er seven thousand dollars per month. 

ALBERT H. FURNALD 

Was born where the tall pine trees grow in Aleghany County, New 
York, July 24, 1858. At nine years of age he began to look for the 
taller trees in the great pine state of Michigan and there among the logs 
and stumps Albert grew to manood when he again struck the great trail 
that led him to Seward in 1878. where he worked on his father's farm 
for many years. In 1887 he had found his girl in the person of one of our 
pioneer girls, Miss Effie C. Clark, and they were married November 
23, at Seward. Miss Clark was born among the icy hills of northern 
New York, August 20, 1862, and came to Seward County with her 
parents in the spring of 1866, so she is pretty nearly a Nebraska girl. 
They have one son, Henry S Mr. Furnald has been a mail carrier on 
one of our first rural routes for three and one half years. He is a 
member of the United Workmen and also of the M. W. A. The church 
home is with the M. E. people. The Furnald's home has been contin- 
uously on section 21, in "G" Town, just by the city of Seward, since 
1878. They have now sold their beautiful home and design a removal 
to Antelope County, Nebraska, near the city of Neligh. 

JAMES A. FALLEN 

A New York boy that was born where the rocky hills furnished 
plenty of sport rolling great rocks down the hills at Lockport. He first 
saw the light xMarch 20, 1843. When a young boy he went to Buffalo 
where he was educated. Came to Plattsmouth in 1868. where he married 
Miss Elizabeth McDwnough, December 28, 1871. She was an Ohio girl 
born at Chillicothe, August 15, 1854, and came to Nebraska in 1869. 

There were born to them eight children as follows : four yet living, 
John A., deal; Charles W., May, an adopted daughter; Margaret C, 
dead; William J., dead; Elizabeth M., now Mrs. M. V. Leger; Edgar 



66 HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

F. , dead; Leo A. and Catherine N. Mr. Fallen came tc Seward in 
1872, and all these years followed contracting and building. His hand- 
iwork may be seen in hundreds of buildings in and around Seward. 
Mr. Fallen has been a very active and useful citizen. The chuvch home 
of the family is with the Catholics. 

JAMES MAXWELL FLETCHER 

Tills unique character was born in the wilds of Kentucky, Hamilton 
County, October 14, 1838. Was educated in a little log school house 
in the old fashioned way much like Lincoln. The whole term of his 
studies in school was ninety days when he graduated, we suppose with 
high honors. We may tell of his early experience in his own language 
to us, where in his own peculiar way he said, "I spent my boyhood days 
on my father's farm doing the ordinary work of a farmer boy in that 
rough wilderness region among the stumps and stones, rolling logs into 
piles to burn, grubbing and burning brush and killing tobacco worms. " 
At the early age of nineteen he fell in love with a neighbor girl, Miss 
Lydia Smalley, and was married in 1857. This noble wife and true 
helpmeet survives him and is at this writing a resident of Seward. To 
his happy union were born nine children, four of them yet live; Edward 
H. , Abbie, now Mrs. Allen S. Anderson; Emma, now Mrs. Theo Biven 
and Delia, now Mrs. W. H. Smith. Three babes were buried at the 
Indiana home, and the youngest was buried in Seward soon after their 
removal here. William died in Seward, May 1, 1898. The young couple 
removed to Fayette County, Indiana, in 1859, with two babes and com- 
menced to lay the foundations of a home, when two years later he heard 
the drum beat calling to arms. Hearing his country's call, he hastened 
to enlist in Company H, 30th Indiana volunteers, and served in the 
army of the Cumberland, was carried from the bloody field of Pitts- 
burg Landing as dead. He was paralyzed by the concussion of a burst- 
ing shell. He was insensible for many days after reaching home. For 
two years he was entirely helpless and was during his whole life a 
great sutterer. While in this serious condition he displayed wonderful 
energy and determination in trying to support his young family. He 
actually tended one crop on the little farm while on crutches. In the 
seventies he engaged in packing pork and in 1873 the panic swept his 
all from him. After a long and wearisome struggle with disease and 
financial embarrassment in 1880. turned his face toward the setting 
sun and settled at Seward, which was his home to the time of his 
death. Here with his sons, Edward and William, engaged in the meat 
business. At an early age Mr. Fletcher united with the M. E. church 
and became an energetic worker in the Master's vineyard. Until his 
total disability he was an enthusiastic worker in the Sab bath -schools 
and was for years an efficient superintendent of the Seward M. E. Sun- 
day school. He threw his whole soul in the G.A. R. Post work and was 
there loved and honored by all. He was a most earnest republican and 
was ever ready to measure swords with the opposition. In jiolitical 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 67 

debate he was a marvel and fairly ranked with the best stump speakers 
of our state. To illustrate his points was ever ready with a story that 
never failed to carry his audience as if by storm. 

For the last ten years he was nearly helpless and scarcely ever got 
a nights sound sleep, set his mind was clear to the last and he enjoyed 
in a marked degree the company of his many friends. Was compelled 
to take his rest and little sleep in a reclining chair, as he could not lie 
in bed. 

The noble wife that mourns for him has all through these years of 
suffering been a sure staff upon which to lean. A few weeks before he 
was called home he told the writer that he was fully ready to hear the 
Master's call and that his faith was "like an anchor to the soul, sure 
and steadfast. " We all miss "Uncle Jim" but while we mourn we can 
look through the dark clouds of sonow and see the grand old man at 
rest and rejoice. He was taken home to his Father's mansion January 
14, 1896. 

DAVID R. FRINK 

Was a young Michigander born in St. Charles County among the 
stumps and stones of that rough county, April 10, 1847. When seven 
years old he found the trail leading to Iowa and remained there until 
he heard of Nebraska in 1877 and Iowa could no longer hold him. June 
14, 186(5, he married Miss Malinda Abernathy at Anamosa, Iowa. She 
was born June 23, 1846, near Belvidere, Illinois. 

They have seven children, viz: Nettie, now Mrs. W. W. Ogelvie; 
Ella, now Mrs. E. H. Perkins; Charles L. , Lottie, now Mrs. J. C. 
Chatlain, ; Bennie, now dead; Alta, now ISIrs. M. S. McAlister; and 
Inez, yet at home. 

The family settled on section 24 in "L" Precinct, September 1877. 
Mr. Frinks' father died of wounds received at the siege of Vicksburg. 
Mr. Frink is a member of W. O. W. at Tamora. Church home is with 
the M. E. folks at Goehner. Mr. Frink has a splendid farm, part in 
"L'" and part in "K' Precincts. It is a pleasure to visit at their 
genial home. 

ISAAC H. FEARY 

A hoosier boy, born in Marshall County, August 29, 1857. Had a 
little touch of western fever in 1865 and landed in Illinois and in 1882 
he had a more violent attack of it and he struck the Nebraska trail and 
landed in "B" Precinct. Seward County. 

He found Miss Mary A. Rurup and was married December 24, 1890. 

She was born in Dane County, Wisconsin, February 23, 1867, and 
came to Seward County in childhood. They had three children, Dixie 
A., Dorothy O. , and Marie C. Mrs. Feary died January 17, 1898. 
Mr. Feary was again married to his wife's sister, Miss Ida R. Rurup. 
They have two children. Ida May and Josephine. 

Mr. Feary is a Modern Woodman. He owns a large and valuable 
farm. 



68 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



<r --»H^wE»».> jiji,, ji 


m 








HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 69 

HON. GEORGE W. FULLER 

Was a soldier boy of the rebellion that found his way to Nebraska 
in pioneer days. Was born in a log cabin on the banks of the classic 
Rock River in Whiteside County, February 7, 1844, where he spent his 
youth and young manhood and when the bugle notes sounded to arms 
George was not backward, although but a boy of eighteen. He enlisted 
in the 75th Illinois infantry and served under Grant, Sherman and Rose- 
cransi.and was in the awful struggle at Perry ville and Lancaster, Ken- 
tucky ; Nolenville and Stone River, where he was wounded. Was at 
Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Ringold Back Face Gap, Resaca, 
New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Culp Farm, two battles of 
Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Lovejoy Station, Franklin ami Nashville. 
Of Mr. Fuller s war record his old captain, George R. ShaW; of Prophets 
town, Illinois, writes as follows: "Mr. George W. Fuller served during 
the war as an enlisted man in Company C of the 75th regiment of Ill- 
inois infantry volunteers; that he was ever faithful to duty, brave in 
action, discreet in all his relations with his associates and his superior 
officers. In short, an ideal volunteer soldier. He deserves well of his 
"fallow men for his service to his country. ' Upon his discharge at the 
end of the war Mr. Fuller went to his old home and in 18(58 came to 
Nebraska and filed on a claim in York County but abandoned it. In 
1869 Mr. Fuller returned to the old home and February 23rd married 
Miss Matilda J. Ashton. She was a native of Plymouth, England, but 
crossed the ocean at four years of age, so she is pretty nearly an Ameri- 
can girl. She was born August 21, 1850. They have had born to them 
eleven children, viz: Mary L. , now Mrs. H. Kellog ; America M., died 
in infancy; Jennie, now Mrs. J. M. Daily; George W., Edward H. , 
Matilda M., Bertha M., Alma C, Gladys M., John C. and Florence E. 
Mr. Fuller served the city of Seward oie term as mayor. Was repre- 
sentative in 26th and 27th sessions of the legislature, where he served 
on several important committees. He moved to Seward County in the 
spring of 1869 and took a homestead in "I" Town. He was one of the 
first to engage in the brick business on the old Manly farm four miles 
northwest of Seward, in the early seventies. Mr. Fuller has had an 
honorable share in developing Seward County. He is a wide-awake 
citizen and now owns a beautiful farm just east of the city. 

Is a member of the G. A. R. Post at Seward. Mr. Fuller was in 
the brick and building trade for many years and laid the walls of many 
of the blocks in Seward. He was at the head of the company that built 
the Windsor Hotel in 1880. 

ROBERT T. GALE 

Seward County's first homesteader, the seventh in this land district. 
Came to Nebraska in very early territorial days, unfortunately nothing 
of his early history is attainable. This author became acquainted with 
him in the spring of 1860 at Nebraska City, where he was engaged in 
making brooms. We enjoyed a close agquaintange with him until death 



70 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

called him home in he spring of 1867. He was a man of unusual in- 
telligence and worthy Christian character. Was a member of the 
Missionary Baptist church. 

Was surveyor by trade and was twice elected surveyor of Seward 
County, in 1865 and 1866. He horaesteaded the land just east of the 
present city. January 2, 1863, the next day after the homestead law 
became in force, but on account of Indian troubles could not occupy the 
land until the early spring of 1864. In the spring oi 1861 he married 
Miss Amelia Wooley, sister of Frederick Wooley of Seward. There were 
two children born to them, Clara, now a resident of Portland, Oregon; 
and a son that died in infancy. 

Mr. Gale was an active and representative citizen and did his full 
share in the early development of the county and is kindly remembered 
by all the old settlers. His funeral services were conducted by the 
venerable Rev. E. L. Clark. All the neighbors followed his remains to 
the grave with sori'owing hearts. It was the first funeral service held 
in his vicinity. His widow now resides in Portland, Oregon. 

ALGERNON GALUSHA 

An old Seward County boy who has made his mark in the world, 
and although he is at present a citizen of Red Cloud, Nebraska, yet we 
feel that Seward County has a right to claim him as we sent him out to 
battle with the world in his young manhood. 

Al, as we all learned to call him, was born at Franklin Falls, New 
York, July 29, 1859, but moved at the age of eight to Lawrenceville, 
same state, where he was educated in the academy. He struck the 
great western trail which led him to Seward in 1882, where he clerked 
in a store and gained many friends who well remember him as a bright 
young man of good character and very attentive to business. 

In 1886 he went to Red Cloud and was for many years engaged in 
the mercantile business, but is at present traveling as a salesman, and 
although he has jiast been nominated by the state republican convention 
to be their standard bearer for secretary of state, instead of traversing 
the state looking for votes, he is attending strictly to his employer's 
business, and we judge that the people will recognize that important 
fact. 

Mr. Galusha is an honorable member of the Masonic order Blue 
Lodge No. 53, at Red Cloud, also of Chapter No. 19 arid Cyrene Com- 
mandery No. 14. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. No. 60 at his 
home, is a member of the Grand Lodge and secretary of the finance 
committee. 

Mr. Galnsha was elected by a large majority and seems right at 
home in the capitol. 

ARTHUR H. GANNON 
An Iowa born boy that came with his parents to Seward when our 
sidewalks were all of prairie sod. Born at Marengo, September 1, 1869, 
and came to Seward in 1872. Grew to manhood here and was educated 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 71 

in the city schools. Was married to Miss Mary Kuobbs, at Seward. 
They have five children, viz: Clyde, Bessie, Beach, McKinley and Cecil. 
Mr. Gannon is a barber by trade and has a neat tonsorial parlor 
which he has managed for many years. He is quite unassuming 
attending strictly to his business interests. 

J. ALFRED GARNER 

A New York State boy, born among the rough and rugged hills of 
Franklin Co\inty, April 14, 1850. He came to Seward County in 1866, 
with the family of Rev. E. L. Clark. He was one of the boys that 
waded snow drifts in the awful winter of 1866 and 1867 to the old log 
school house. He worked as a valuable farm hand until 1869. March 28 
he married Miss Helen B. Hageman. She was a native of Fulton 
County, Illinois, born May 20, 1852. They have twelve children, viz: 
Maggie, now Mrs. C. E. Robins; Martha F. , now dead; George W. , 
Jennie A., now Mrs. A. Hack worth ; Constance, now Mrs. B. M. Garton ; 
James A., Harry, Newton L. , Edward E. , Ella B. , William L. and 
Ruth E. 

Church home is with the Seventh Day Adventists. INIr. Garner is 
a splendid farmer and good citizen. 

VV. D. GIVENS 

The oldest ph )tographer in the county. Was born February 6, 1856. 
Came to Lincoln in 1875 and commenced the picture business in 1878 
and opened his gallery in Seward in 1880 and has continued the busi- 
ness through sunshine and storm from that time to the present. 

He has the largest and pest equipped gallery in the county. Mr. 
Givens is certainly a success as a photographer. 

In 1883, October 31, he captured one of our Seward girls, Miss 
Laura B., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. I. E. McPheley. They have tw^o 
children, Millie L. and John H. 

Mrs. Givens was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, August 24, 1863, 
and came in early childhood to Seward County where she was educated 
and grew to womanhood. 

^ JOHN F. GEESON 

The leading tailor of Seward County. Was another of those sturdy 
German boys that dreamed of the better land beyond the sea and at 
twenty-one found his way to Illinois, and three years later he made 
Seward his home and opened his tailor shop, whicli has grown with the 
years to be a large and prosperous concern. 

Mr. Geeson was born October 17, 1863. After getting well settled 
in business he found Miss Antonia Scheibel and was married at Omaha, 
September 3, 1889. She was born Sepember 21, 1868, in Germany. 

Six children came to bless their home, viz: Clara, Josephine, Marie 
Edward, Margaret and Leonard. Mr. Geeson is a Workman and Wood- 
man of America. Church home is with the Catholics. He has been for 
years a trustee of the church. He is a member of the city council. 



72 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

JACOB GEIS 

A Prominent farmer of "K" Precinct and president of the In- 
dependent Telephone Company. Came from the blue claj- hills of Sciota 
County, Ohio, born May 8, 1844, where he was raised, and there he was 
married January 31, 1871, to Miss May Karl. She was a native of 
Portsmouth, Ohio, boi-n December 18, 1846, and died at the family home 
January 5, 1901. They were the parents of eleven children. They 
followed Teddie's advice in advance. Names as follows : John J. , Frank 
L. , Mary A., deceased; Rosa M, now Mrs. F. Eisbarth ; William, now 
dead; Heniy E. , dead; Louis K. , Suphrona I., Charles, dead; Fred S. , 
and Herman. The family came to the county in 1889 and bdught the 
old Thompson ranch on section 81, where he now has an elegant home. 
Church home is with the Catholic people. Mr. Geis has had the 
misfortune to lose one hand but somehow he is a rustler "all the 
ame. 

CHARLES GEMBLER 

Was a child of the sucker state, born at Mineer May 30. 1872, and 
remained there till grown. Came to Sew-ard County in 1893, and 
married Miss Annie E. Wullenwaber, August 17, 1896, at Sew aid. 

She was a Mineer girl that followed Charley to Seward. She was 
tiorn July 13, 1874. They have. five children, viz: Lena, Letha, Elvin, 
Lucile, and Opal. They settled on a farm in "F" precinct, brt he is 
now in charge of the Opdike elevator at Goehner. He belongs to the 
M. W. A. Church home is with the Evangelical people. 

HERMAN GOECKE 

Was a seventeen year old German lad that saw the brighter light 
beyond the sea and had the courage to break away from the old en- 
vironments and seek a home in this new and fertile land. 

Was born May 21, 1855, and in 1872 cames straight to Sewartl County, 
where he bought a quarter section in section 12, "H" Town and the lad 
went to work with a will and improved it and after seven years he 
bef^an to think of Christinie that he had left behind and straightway, 
armed with Uncle Sam's authority as an American citizen he went and 
claimed his ovv'n. He and Miss Ilegener were married in the Fatherland 
July 14, 1881. She was born August 14, 1862. Three of their children 
died in infancy. The living are as follows: Minnie, now Mis. E. 
Braner ; Annie, now Mrs. L. Sieck ; Fred VV., Ella, William, Herman, 
and Emma 

Mr. Goecke has a nice home among the hills and seems prosperous 
and happy. Church home is with the Lutherans. 

JOHN F. GOEHNER 

One of the most successful and enterprising merchants of Seward for 
thirty years. Was born in Germany in 1850. The boy in his early 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



73 



youth heard of our great republic and its possibilities and to get there 
was the dream of his joung life. In his nineteenth year he crossed the 
ocean and commenced life here as clerk in a grocery house at St. Louis. 
In 1871 he found his way to Nebraska Citv and clerked there for tw^o 




D\velling of John F. Goehner 

years, when in 1873 he came to help build Seward. He opened a small 
grocery stc»re and commenced the grain trade in 1875. Made (juite a 
success of his business and in 1879 built the first Goehner block (m the 
corner of Seward and Seventh Streets and in the summer of 1884 bnilt 
the fine block that bears his name on the corner of Seward and Sixth 
Streets, and placed therein an immense stock of hardware. 

This young lad has grown to be a successful business man of high 
order and displays unbounded enthusiasm in public enterprises for this 
city and county. Is a leading member of the Lutheran church and was 
a leading spirit in securing the location here and building of the fine 
college, noted on another page of this work. Has twice been honored 
as member of the city council. In 1884 was elected and served as state 
senator. Lent a strong helping hand in securing the building of the F. 
E. & M. V. railroad through the county. Has been honored with the- 
naming of one of our new towns. 

Mr. Groehner married Miss Vanderhe at Seward in 1875. To them 
have been born seven children, as follows, all yet living with the 



74 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

parents: Frederick. Benjamin, Arthur, John, Walter, Wilhehn, and 
Dorothy. Mr. Goehner has been treasvirer of the Seward Mixtual Fire 
Insurance Compan}' for eight years. 

CHARLES M. GORDON 

A New York boy born in Orange County December 28, 1832. His 
parents thought that the little hills of New York were not big enough, 
so when Charley was three years old they went to Pennsylvania, where 
the lad could climb mountains to his heart's content. Charley got 
enough of the rocky fields of that rough locality and in 1858 he found 
better quarters at Laporte, Indiana, when he married Miss Sarah Prince, 
August 10, at Buffalo, Michigan. 

She was born in April, 1839, in Lucerne County, Pennsylvania. 
They came to Seward County in 1875. November 25, and located on 
section 13, "B" Precinct. Children born, six, viz: Clara A., Harry A., 
George E. , Lewis L., who died at nine years of age; Frank F. , and 
Bert B. 

Mrs. Gordon died some years ago. Mr. Gordon enlisted in the 21st 
Indiana Battery but did not get to smell much burnt powder. He is a 
member of the A. F. and A. M. The church home of the family is 
with the Christian Church of Lincoln. 

Since the death of Mrs Gordon, Mr. Gordon has made his home 
with his daughter at Lincoln. 

AUGUST E. GRAFF 

Was born in the Sucker State in Taswell County. March 19, 1873, 
and was raised and educated there. Came to Seward County and 
located on a farm in "K" Precinct in 1892, where he found his best 
girl and July, 27. 1904, at Seward, he captured Miss Theresa M. 
Schroeder. She was a genuine Seward County girl, born at Geohner. 
February 14, 1884. We can't count the children yet. 

He is now cashier of the Goehner Sate Bank. He is a member of 
the M. W. A. Mr. Graff appears to have a bright future before him. 

REV. KARL THEODORE GRUBER 

Was the son of a minister in Germany, who had the grit to leave 
the fatherland and lead a flock of one hundred and sixty souls out of 
the house of bondage, as it were. The religious intoUerance could no 
longer be bocne and they sought a refuge in free America in 1839 and 
settled in Missouri, where Karl was born, and grew to manhood. Was 
educated for the ministry in the Concordia college, which during his 
attendance was moved to Si. Louis, where he studied three years. Her 
served congregations in Missouri and Illinois until his lemoval to 
Nebraska in 1870. In November of that year began his long and useful 
career among the churches of Lancaster, Seward, York and Hamilton 
Counties 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 75 

In 1880 he returned to Illinois to recuperate his failing health, but 
in 1885 returned to Seward County and took the pastorate of the Orton 
church, where he remained until death claimed him. 

Father Grutier married Miss A. M. Kipp Ma^' 29, 1855, and there 
were born to them ten children. 

He was a man of work and wonderful perseverance, and did a great 
work for his people. As a spiritual teacher he exerted a good influence 
over the large German communities of these counties. He probably 
founded more churches of his denomination than any other man in 
Nebraska. 

After facing many winter storms for his people s welfare he was 
called home to rest, followed with prayers and tears of a great multi- 
tude, loved and honored by thousands of people. 

HON. THOMAS GRAHAM 

One of the oldest residents settled on a homestead near old Camden 
in 1866. He taught the first school of that part of the county the 
following winter. Was appointed school superintendent in 1869. Sur- 
veyed the town site of Seward in the spring of 1868, and was elected 
county clerk that fall and re-elected the fifth time. It well illustrates 
the man, he being a staunch democrat and the county a staunch 
republican. During his long term of office Mr. Graham became 
fully identified with Sew^ard and continued to make it his home. Was 
once elected mayor and once elected state senator. Is a surveyor by 
trade and at different times been in the government employ surveying 
lands. In this book we quote freely from notes taken by him while in 
the Government service. 

He married Mrs. Jeanete Denison. They have but one son, Walter 
B. , now resident of Omaha. They were married at Plattsmouth, 
November 5, 1866. Mrs. Denison was a New York lady. Her maiden 
name was Jeanette Signor. 

Mr. Graham was born in 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, 
November 6. While a little child his parents moved to the vicinity of 
Pittsburg. His father tried hard to make a blacksmith of Thomas, but 
the young American could not be persuaded. The effort was a failure. 
Thomas would rather be a surveyor and had his first experience in that 
line on a little one-horse railroad being built from Remington to 
McKee's Rocks, six miles distant. His next work was on Cork's Run 
tunnel, and from this time till 1857 he was engaged un various railroad 
lines in his native state and Virginia. 

We next find the young man perambulating the plains. In 1859 he 
carried mail from Nebraska City to Marysville, Kansas. Then he 
clerked in a little store on the edge of Otoe reservation. Sold goods 
and kept the post office, called Stewart. This was near the present 
town of Liberty in Gage County. 

Mr. and Mrs. Graham have acted well their part in helping to 
make Nebraska a great state. As surveyor, as teacher, as county clerk, 



76 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

mayor or senator. Mr. Graham's record is good. Mrs. Graham has a 
verj' enviable record for works of charity. She has through many long 
years worked most faithfully in thnt field of usefulness. Long live 
these useful and kind people who have done so much for the country. 




Don C. Gwartney 

Was born September 4, 1862, in Hairison County, Indiana, where 
he grew to manhood. Was educated in the common schools of that 
country. Was married September 9, 1883, to Miss Rhoda V. Davidson. 
They have three children, viz: Mazo C. , Harry E. , and Sarah E , all 
yet at home. The young peotile came to York, Nebraska, in 1884, and 
to Seward in 1887, where he opened a first class laundry, which he con- 
ducted until compelled by poor health to sell out in I90'd, when he went 
to Beaver Crossing and opened a restaurant. 

In 1903 he was elected district clerk and moved back to Seward 
where he now lives. The church home of the family is with the M. E. 
people, where they are active and valuable members. 

Mr. Gwartney is a Past Grand in the I. O. O. F. at Seward. He is 
also a Modern Woodman. In 1897 Mr. Gwartney had the misfortune to 
lose one of his legs, caused by tuberculosis of the knee joint, which 
caused him great pain and much anxiety, but after the amputation he 
fairly recovered his health and makes pretty good use of his artificial 
limb. 

Mrs. Gwartney was the daughter of Rev. VV. H. Davidson, of 
southern Indiana conference. Was educated at her native home. She 
is a Royal Neighbor in two senses of the word. 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 77 

OWEN GRAY 

A son of the emerald isle, born in county Laitrim Parish Mohilol, 
November 14, 1837. He married Miss Mary A. Castolo. She died at 
thirty-four years of age, leaving- him six young children, viz: Michael, 
May, Eugene, Elizabeth, who wms killed in the north part of this county 
July 5, 1901; William and James. 

The family came to this county from the fatherland in 1892, where 
so many more grand opportunities await the careful and industrious. 
He owns a beautiful farm in "B" precinct, adorned with trees and 
fruit. 

Mr. Gray is a Catholic and a splendid Irish-American. 

JOSEPH P. GANNON 

A thirty-one years' resident of Seward, was born among the 
rocky hills of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, January 30, 1840. He 
so.journed on the western trail awhile in cool Minnesota then we find 
the young man in Iowa County. Iowa, where he found Miss Alice Mas- 
terman and they were married December 13, 1866. 

She was a native of Bermuda Islands, born June 27, 1850, and 
came to Iowa in early youth. They are the parents of seven children, 
viz: William H., Arthur H., Alta and Maud, each died in infancy; 
Mrs. Pearl Stocker, Susie M. Menghen. and Orpha. 

The family came to Seward in 1874. He is a painter and paper 
hanger. Mr. Gannon etdisted in Company H, 64th New York Volunteer 
infantry and was in battles of Fairbanks, Gettysburg and Chancellors- 
villa. 

LEVI HAFER 

An old timer that began to snuff the gentle zephyrs of Nebraska in 
1868, when he located on the commanding hill top three miles west of 
Seward. At that time his homestead was worth about a dollar per acre 
and it has not lost in value yet. Mr. Hafe" was born in Northcumber- 
laud County. Pennsylvania, January 31, 1844. Married Sarah L. Huff- 
man January 16, 1866. She was born in Licuming County, Penn- 
sylvania, July 16, 1845. Children born to them as follows: Martin A., 
Lewis F. , who died at twenty-four; Irving R., Ida May, who died at 
twenty-four ; John S., Susie M., and Charles E. , both at home. Mr. 
Hafer is a notable fine stock man, and is a breeder of Poland China pigs 
and fine cattle. Has liecome (juite wealthy on that hill and owns 
several farms. 

The family helped to organize the U. B. church at Seward and are 
most earnest workeis in the church. 

SIMON P. HAGEMAN 

Down in that county of brush and muddy roads, Fulton County, 
Illinois, Simon was born, September 21, 1858. Somehow an epidemic 



18 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

of western fever broke out in old Fulton in 1866 and Simon, together 
with the whole Hageman family, took it, and they landed in the 
wilderness of Seward County in the spring in time to see the flowers 
bloom. 

Simon hunted coons along the river, helped make the old farm, 
went to school, fished and chased antelope and finally got after better 
game and captured Miss Viola VVallick, May 27, 1884, at Seward. She 
was born at Caba, Iowa, January 29, 1862. They have three children, 
Albert R., Grace P.. and Alice N., all at home. Mr. Hageman suc- 
ceeded to his father's old farm four miles south of Seward. They have 
a splendid farm. He is a member of the Maccabees and United Work- 
men. 

JESSE A. HAINES 

A Maryland born boy that strayed west in his young manhood. 
Born in Carrol County, March 15, 1864. In 1889 we find him in Bloom- 
ington, Illinois, where he married Miss Kate Holstien, January 30. 
She was born September 5, 1867, in Taswell County, Illinois. They 
have five children, viz: Ora M., William L. , Jesse C. , Homer E. , and 
Flmer <t. 

They came to Seward County and settled in "K" town October 15, 
1890, and later bought the Goddard farm in "J" town. Mr. Haines 
has lately sold his beautiful farm and expects to move to Taswell 
County, Illinois. We expect him back on an early train. He is a 
member of the A. O. U. W. 

FREDERIC C. HARTMAN 

Came within an ace of being American born, as the parents brought 
him from the fatherland when but three months old. So Fred was to 
all intents and purposes an American boy. Born December 16, 1845. 
The family located in the backwoods of Adams County, Indiana. Here 
Fred chased squirrels and picked up chips till six years old when they 
followed the trail westward and landed in the wilderness of Clayton 
County, Iowa. Here the boy grew up and received his limited educa- 
tion in the log cabin schoolhouses of that day. 

In 1867 he again found the trail which led him to Lincoln Creek 
where he took a homestead and more, he wooed and won the heart and 
hand of Miss Dora M., daughter of good old friend William Hornburg, 
and was married January 1, 1870. This German girl was Vjorn in May, 
1846, and came tt) Nebraska when quite young. Seven children were 
born to them, viz : James, Alexander, Walter, Harry, Arthur, loze and 
Florence B. Mr. Hartman sold the old home many years ago and 
bought a farm at Oclel, Gage County, but after eighteen years he re- 
turned to his first love and bought a nice farm five miles north and west 
of Seward in 1891, where peace, happiness and plenty dwells. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



79 




80 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

W. G.. HAROLD 

Another Seward County boy that is coming to the front. Born on 
a farm near Bee, March 25, 1877. His first school years were spent at 
Seward, where his father ran a blacksmith shop. Later the family 
spent some years at Rising, Nebraska. Mr. Harold was married 
October 1. 1898, to Miss Laura M. Jones at Ashland, Nebraska. She 
was an Illinois gii'l that came west in her girlhood days and graduated 
from the Wesleyan university in the class of 1898. 

They have two little ones, Mabel E. , and Geoi'gia M. They made 
their home in Milford December 1, 1901, here he is manager of the 
Babson and Dickman implement house. 

Mr. Harold is a member of the following civic orders: Knights of 
Pythias, I. O. O. F. , Woodmen of America, Royal Highlanders and 
Knights of the Maccabees 

PAUL P. HERSCHBEKGER 

Was an Ohio boy, born April 6, 1840, in Holmes County. At 
twenty-one he tried the wesl but did not reach the right spot and after 
four years in the Hoosier state he leturned to Ohio where he stayed just 
as long as he could stand it after hearing of \ebraska and its glorious 
opportunities. In 1876 found Milford and a choice farm three miles north 
west where he is content to live. Married at the old home in Ohio, to 
Miss Magdalena Kuhns. Eight children came to the home, six, of 
whom yet live Samuel died at fourteen and Fannie at seven. Mary, 
wife of John Sweitzer; Absolam P., John K, Amanda, now Mrs. E. M. 
Beckler ; Joseph and Lovina, now Mrs. J. Jantzi. 

Mr. Herschberger was the first minister of the Amish Menonite 
faith in Seward County. 

HON. THOMAS A. HEALEY 

One of our best known citizens and for many years post master at 
Milford. Was born July 7, 1842. at Montreal, Canada. When Thomas 
was but four years old the parents moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin terri- 
tory, where the boy received his education in a log cabin of that 
frontier settlement. While only a lad, in 1861, he enlisted in the First 
Wisconsin cavalry and while his regiment was making a wild charge at 
L'Aiiguille, Arkansas, he received a serious wound in both hip and 
arm, and on thai field of carnage the boy lay sweltering in his blood 
until recovered by the boys of his regiment when he was sent to Mem- 
phis hospital. Near the end of 1862 he was discharged and sent home. 
In 1866 was elected sheriff in Kenosha County and served two years. 
In the early spring of 1869 he made an overland trip with a team to 
Seward County and located in "N" precinct, nine miles west of Mil- 
ford. 

Mr. Healey was married to Miss Kate M. Bundy, of Kenosha, Wis- 
consin, in 1865, April 25. Mrs. Healey was born April 6, 1843. One 
son was born to them, Leslie, now of Milford. Mr. Healey was ap- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 81 

pointed deputy county clerk in 1870. In 1876 was elected to the legisla- 
ture by a large inajority and served the county well. Was admitted to 
the bar by Judge Bates and admitted to practice in supreme court and 
has much of the time been engaged in the practice of law and insurance 
business. Was appointed postmaster at Milford in 1873 by President 
Grant and again by President McKinley in 1898, August 1. During Mr. 
Healey's official term he has handled two hundred ten thousand dollars 
government money. 

Mr. Healey is a generous minded, wide-awake, enterprising and 
vahiaV)le citizen and has done his full share in the development and ad- 
vancement of Milford and the county. 

BENJAMIN F. HICKMAN 

An Iowa boy, born in Hardin County, August 7, 1859. Grew to 
manhood and received his education there. Came to Seward County 
in 1877. 

Married Miss Mary L. Ellis, a Seward County girl, in 1882. Five 
children were born to them, viz: Allen, Maud, Pearl M., John, and 
Onie, all at home. 

Mrs. Hickman was born in 1866. Mr. Hickman is a farmer. The 
church home of the family is with the Seventh day Adventists, of 
which Mr. Hickman is a most ardent adherent. 

WILLIAM HICKMAN 

One of the first to break the virgin sod in "B" precinct. Was a 
native of Randolph County, Indiana. Was born Marh 3, 1831. Learned 
the carpenter's trade in his youth and just like so many of the more 
wide-awake youngsters he caught the western fever and in 1851 made 
his way to Jasper County, Iowa, where he followed his trade for three 
years then concluded to become a farmer. But he had not yet gotten 
over the western fever and in 1868 he found the goal of his ambition in 
Seward County, where he opened a nice farm where he resided till 1887 
when he moved to town and tried a hand at merchandising. But this 
did not perfectly agree with his notions and after eighteen months he 
sold out. He was elected member of the house of representatives in 
the fall of 1877 and again in the fall of 1878, and served on several im- 
portant committees very acceptably, and was considered a very valuable 
member. In politics he is a staunch republican. Was for many years 
considered one of our leading farmers. Married Miss Louisa E. Moffitt 
at Newton, Iowa, December 1853. and raised a family consisting of six 
children; Charles F. , Elzena, deceased; Orpha, now Mrs. Charles Knox; 
Eldora, now Mrs. Frank Bachelder ; Barckley M. , and Alice, dead. She 
married Henrv Sampson. 

Mr. Hickman is a member of long standing of the A. F. and A. M. 
His good wife died September 30, 1891. She was a most noble woman 
and was highly respected wherever known. 

Some years ago Mr. Hickman retired from active work or business 



82 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

and is trying to take life as easy as iiossible. enjoying the fruits of an 
energetic and well spent life. 

He was married to Mrs. Harriet Manly in 1893. The old folks 
reside in their neat and cosy home in Seward while his son, Barckley, 
manages the home farm. 




Hon. William Hickman 



MERIDAN P. HECOX 

Came to life and light in 1847 in Hancock Connty, Illinois. At 
fifteen he heard of the west and made his way to Harrison Connty, 
Iowa. Married Miss Mary E. McFadin in 1871. 

As a result of the union five chidren were born, viz: Clarence D. , 
Carrie, now Mrs. William Dixon; Melvia, now deceased, was Mrs. W. 
S. Cage ; Elizabeth, now Mrs. J. Dixon ; and William. 

The young couple came to Seward in 1883. Mr. Hecox has worked 
at mechanical work much of the time but for late years has given his 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 83 

time to insurance, in which he has been very successful, and is ac- 
counted first class in his line of work. 

HENRY A. HEUMAN 

Is a Seward boy, born June 19, 1880. and this has been the scene of 
his life work so far. He is a wide-awake boy that has received his 
education in our city schools. Perhaps if this sketch could be written 
ten years hence it might tell all about Henry's wife and babies, but we 
must wait for another edition of Seward County history. 

Henry is member of the I. O. 1. F. , the Maccabee and also of the 
Sons of Herman. Church home is with the Evangelical people of 
Seward. 

HON. EDMUND H. HINSHAW 

Our present valuable and working member of congress from the 
fourth district, was a native of Greensborough, Indiana, born De- 
cember 8, 1860. and grew up on his father's farm. After the school 
days were over Mr. Hinshaw discovered his best girl and gained his 
first and most important victory at Cadiz, Indiana, where he married 
Miss Ida Cooper. They have one son, Howard R. 

The young people saw the bright we.stern star in 1887 and straight- 
way took the trail to Jefferson County and he commenced his career at 
Fairbury as superintendent of schools for a year then he entered the 
practice of law with Judge Letton He served Jefferson County four 
years as prosecuting attorney, when in 1898 he was nominated by the 
republican convention for congress and was snowed under by -Judge 
Stark, of Aurora, by five hundred and twenty-seven votes. Was nominated 
again in 1902 and then the other fellow got snowed under very deeply, 
by two thousand four hundred ninety-nine votes. 

Mr. Hinshaw is a very active and hard working member of the 
House and has honorable places on many committees. Many of the old 
soldiers of his district can rise up and bless his name for his unflagging 
interest in their welfare. Elected by about all the votes in 1904, about 
seven thousand ma.jority. ' 

HON. CLIFTON E. HOLLAND 
Says he was born in the brush near Farmington, Fulton County, 
Illinois, May, 1859. He received his education at Hawes academy 
and the Wesleyan university at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he gradu- 
ated in the class of 1880. and three years later received the ma.ster's 
degree. From 1880 to 1883 was principal of the city schools at Green- 
field, Iowa. He began the study of law with a well known firm at 
Mount Pleasant. Some years later he attended the law department of 
Yale College and graduated in the class of 1885, and was admitted to 
practice in all the courts of Connecticut. Now he hunts the trail that 
leads to Nebraska, and soon lands in Seward. We w^ould not forget 
that while so busily engaged in study he won his first and best laurels, 



84 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



when he found Miss Sarah L. Chenaeth and made a bargain with her 
December 28, 1881. They were married at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. She 
was born Ajiril 28, 18(U, at Atica, Indiana. They have three children, 
all at h'une: Ynle C , LaVivienne and Marion L. 




Residence of Judge C. E. Holland 

They landed in Seward in 1885 and here he opened a law and loan 
office. In 1887 he was elected probate judge of the county. Mr. Hol- 
land is a staunch republican and takes an active part in county and 
state political affairs. He has served our city as mayor and city at- 
torney. Is now a member of our board of education and superintended 
the construction of our new and beautiful school house. He is a mem- 
ber of the I. O. O. F. , Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen. 

ERNEST C. HOLLAND 

Wa*! an Illinois boy, born in Canton, February 4, 1858. The family 
moved to Kansas for awhile but returned eastward to Mount Pleasant, 
Iowa, where the lad received his education at Hawes academy. 

Married Miss Hannah Love, of Nebraska Cit>, a pioneer girl, 
January 19, 1878. She was born May 23. 18(jl, just as the great war 
began. Two children bless the home: Blanche and Hazel. 

Mr. Holland came to Seward in 1887. Is engaged in the horse 
trade. He takes to fine horses as a duck does to water. He is a mem- 
ber of the A. F. and A, M., also of the K. P. and A. O. U. W. 



i 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 85 

LYMAN O. HOWARD 

A Seward County boy. Two and a half miles east of Milford, on 
November 8, 1873, he was born. Worked on his father's farm and at- 
tended Milford schools and grew to mature years there. Spent from 
1897 to 1900 at Craig, Nebraska. Was several years in the meat trade 
at Milford. Learned the printer's trade at Craig and upon his return 
to Milfoil in 1900, ho bought "The Nebraskan" and has been its able 
editor and publisher since that date. The history of his paper will ap- 
pear in another place in these pages. Mr. Howard was mariied to Miss 
.Agnes Warner, a Minnesota girl who came heie with her parents, Mr. 
an;l Mis. L. J. Warner. She was born September 26. 187(3. and come 
in eurly childhood to Bnrt County, where Mr. Howard captured her 
July (i, 1897. Two children came to their home, James W. and little 
Agnes, who was laid to rest at Ciaig. Mr. Howard is a Past Grand in 
the I. O. O F^ and a Modern Woodman, also a member of the Knights 
of Maccabees, and is awide-a-wake editor, and we are always proud of 
such Seward County boys. 



F. W. HOUDERSHELDT 

An Iowa boy, born December 13, 1868, in Washington County. 
Came to Seward County when ten years old and with his parents located 
in "J" precinct, and that has been his home to the present time. 

He married Miss Nora Rogers December 2, 1889. She was born in 
Laport County, Indiana, in 1869, and came to Seward County in 1878. 
She died November 9, 1902. They had two children born to them, viz: 
Pearl M. , and Homer W. Mr. Houdersheldt's mother. Miss Elizabeth 
Atwood, sister to Hon. Silas Atwood was boi"n in Preble County, Ohio, 
May 8, 1835. She was married to William Houdersheldt in November 
1859 and died February 1, 1900. 

They came to Seward County in 1878. She was the mother of four 
children. The father, B. W. Houdersheldt, was born April 2, 1837, in 
Rockinham County, West Virginia. The family moved to Iowa in 
1857, and to Seward County in 1878. 

JOSEPH H. HUFFMAN 

Was born among the rocky hills of old New York state, at Con- 
quest, October 10, 1848. He was raised in Caugo County. At twenty - 
two he found the great western trail and landed in "N" precinct, in 
March, 1870, and began his career in helping to sulxlue the wilderness. 
He began as teacher at the old home place and when he arrived at the 
new field began again in earnest and he has now labored in our educa- 
tional field about thirty yeais, almost incessantly. 

Married Miss Hannah R. Miller, October 22, 1878, who died 
August 18, 1880, at Friend. Nebraska. In 1888, November 13, he mar- 
ried Miss Ada Miller, at Utica, Nebraska. She was born, at Taylor- 
ville, Illinois April 2, 1856, and came to Reward Cgunty in early youth. 



86 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

They have six children, viz: William A., Francis J.. John J. L. , Royal 
C. . Don Cai'los, and Homer L. Mr. Huffman is a member of the A. F. 
and A. M. , the I. O. O. F. , and also the Ben Hur. Of the latter he is 
an active organizer. The family church home is' with the United 
Brethren. 

Mr. Huffman now resides in the village of Beaver Crossing and is 
among the active and useful citizens of that thriving village. 

CHARLES K. HUMPHREY 

Was a New York state boy that found a home in Ohio in early 
childhood. Born at Bloomfield, August 2, 1843. Was educated in Ohio, 
where he enlisted in the 20th Ohio light artillery. Was in the battles 
of Stone river and J'ranklin, besides many skirmishes. June T. 1865, 
was discharged at Chattanooga, Tennessee. On his return home he 
began looking for the western trail and found it. It of course, led him 
to Seward, where he found just the right place, and he found more. 
He found where Father Olmstead lived and Letitia G., his daughter. 
They were married October 7, 1873. She was a New York girl born 
May 23, 1839, at Walesville, and came to Nebraska with her parents 
when Sew^ard was but a hamlet. 

They have born to them four children. One died in infancy ; 
Bercie, now Mrs. L. C. Moore ; O. Egbert, who enlisted in Nebraska 
First and was with the boys at Manilla, was mortally wounded and 
returned home to die. His death occurred at his father's home, Nov. 
17, 1899; Arthur G.. is yet at home. 

Mr. Humphrey is a carjjenter and builder and has followed the 
business sucessfully in Seward for about thirty-five years and can count 
hundreds of buildings that he has constructed. He is a member of the 
G. A. R. and also of the A. O. U. W. 

ORSON EGBERT HUMPHREY 

Was born in Seward, Nebraska, July 28, 1877. Was educated in 
Seward schools. Enlisted in Company M, First Nebraska volunteers, 
May 2, 1898, and went to the Philippines and was wounded at the battle 
of Quinga, Ai3ril 23, 1899. Was brought home and died from his 
wounds after much patient suffering, November 17, 1899. He was a 
noble boy, well respected by all who knew him. 

JOHN M. HUGHES 

One of the contractors and builders who for ten years have done 
much toward making Seward the most beautiful city in the west. Was 
born in Davis County, Iowa, November 26, 1860, where he remained 
until grown to mature years In 1892 we find him at our capital city, 
driving his business with might and main, but amidst all the hurry of 
business he took time to form the acquaiiitance of Miss Maud Davis, 
and they were married June 15, 1892. She was born March 23, 1859, in 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 87 

Van Buren County, Iowa, and came to Nebraska in 1888. They have 
four children, viz : John, Burr, Benjamin, and Theodore. 

They came to Seward in 1894 and more than a hundred elegant 
homes scattered over our county and city, that have sprung into being 
under his guiding hand, attest the fact that he came not in vain. Has 
a membership in the M, W. A. 

» 
WILLIAM C. HUGHES 

The tran that owns the most tasteful and. beautiful home place in 
the county. Was born in Trenton. New Jersey, February 22, 1880. 
Came to Seward County in 1878, March 1. Married to Mi«s Martha A. 
Bye, December 28, 18(5,"i, at Yates City, Illinois. She was born January 
10. 1845. Children born to them as follows: Martha, Adeline, and 
William R. The girls both married. 

William attends the farm in good shape The door yard is a per- 
fect paradise of flowers. 

GEORGE G. HURT 

A Kentucky boy, born in McGoffin County, November IH, ISHH, 
where he remained until he was nineteen when he took the northern 
trail and landed in the Hoosier state and spent two years there. But 
that land was not entirely to his liking so he caught the western fever 
and landed in Seward County in 1889. Here he was contented when he 
found Miss Bessie S. Ramsey. They were married August 2H, 1898. 
She was born in Jasper County, Iowa, March 8. 1875, and came to 
Seward County when a young child. 

There were born to them three children : Raymond R. , Mary J. , 
and Delphia G. , all at home. 

Mrs. Hurt was a noble Christian lady who was called to her 
Heavenly home, June 5, 1900. Mr. Hurt is thus left with the care of 
the young family. He owns a beautiful farm four miles northwest of 
Seward. He is a Modern Weodman. The churcu home is with the M. 
E. church at Seward. 

CARL IMIG 

A German born boy that got sight of the stars and stripes when 
nine years old and with his parents crossed the old ocean in 1857. Carl 
was born August 1, 1848. The family located in Taswell County, 
Illinois, and there Carl grew to manhood and became acquainted with 
Miss Katherine Imig and was married in June, 1871. 

She was born in Germany in October 1848, and came to this country 
in 1870. To this union were born nine children, three of whom died. 
Names as follows: Minnie, now Mrs. George Algair; Elizabeth, 
deceased; Mary, now Mrs. F. Riderbush ; Carl, Kate, Bertha, now Mrs. 
H. Badbery, and Louis. Mrs. Imig died November 8, 1887. Mr. Imig 
ma"'i®d the sister of his former wife, Miss Annie, October 7, 1891. One 



88 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

child was born to them, viz : George. Mr. Imig came to Seward 
County in 1878 and located five miles southwest of Seward. He is a 
member of the United Workmen and is also a member of the Evangeli- 
cal church Mr. Imig is a first class farmer and he pwns a nice farm. 

DAVID IMLAY, SR. 

One of the three vanguards of this locality was " Grandpa Imlay. " 
He located a homestead on section ten, in*"G" township, in the spring 
of 1864, where he lived the remainder of his life He was born among 
the rugged hills of Alleghany County, Pennsylvania, in 1792. Miss 
Doras Johnson, who became his wife, was born at the same place. 
They were married in 1814. They moved to Muskingham County, 
Ohio, immediately, and made a new home in the woods, where they 
opened a farm and resided nine years, when they returned to the old 
home for nine years and took care of their old parents. 

They then returned to the old Ohio home, where they remained 
until 1841, when they pushed on west to Wabash County, Indiana. 
The old people followed their children to the west in 18r)6 and located 
in Harrison County, Iowa, from thence to Seward County in 18(34. 
Grandmother Imlay died in 1871 and Grandfather followed her in June, 
1872. These old people had united with the Presyterian church in 
their youth and lived Christian lives to the letter. They assisted in 
organizing the first Presbyterian church at Seward in 1870. 

There were born to them twelve sons and daughteis, five of whom 
lived at Seward, but only two of them are now living. David P., of 
Seward and Mrs. Sarah A. Brown of Los Angeles, California; Mrs. 
Stanwood, William, and Joseph have died since their removal here. 

HON. WILLIAM IMLAY 

One of the first settlers of Seward County and the second to make a 
permanent home in the vicinity of the present city. Mr. R. T. Gale, 
Mr. Imlay and his fathers familv all located here in the early spring 
of 18(54. For a time these were the only settlers in the north half of 
the county except John Scott, at the oak groves. 

Mr. Imlay was born in Pennsylvania in 1830. Moved with his 
parents to Ohio in his early youth and latei to Indiana, where he grew 
to manhood, formed the acquaintance of Miss Mary Donaldson and they 
were married in 1853. In 185(5 they moved to Harrison County, Iowa, 
and in 185» to Cass County, Nebraska, and were truly pioneers of our 
state or territory, rather. In 18()3 they moved to the Salt Basin in 
Lancaster County and for a year or more engaged in the manufacture 
of salt. There the writer formed their acquaintance which grew into a 
close friendship which continued until death intervened. Mr. Imlay 
located a homestead two miles west of the present city and there was 
the family home until his death. 

At the fall election of 18(54 he was elected to the legislature to rep- 
resent Lancaster. Seward, and a boundless region to the westward. He 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 89 

had a prominent place on several important committees and was con- 
sidered an active and valuable member. When this county was organ- 
ized, in 1805, he was elected one of the first county commissioners and 
served three successive terms, and took a leading part in all matters 
pertaining to the development and advancement of the county. 
Because of his energy and will power he was frequently spoken of as 
the county commissioners. He was there to do his duty and he did it 
well. In later years he took but little part in county affairs but paid 
his entire attention to the farm and his church of which he and his 
good wife were honored members. They having united with the 
Presbyterian chuich while young helped to found their church in 
Seward. He was an official member while he lived. Mr. and Mrs. 
Iralay during the early years of their settlement, underwent many 
hardships and privations incident to pioneer life, but they bore it all 
heroically and came off conquerors at the end, having built up a com- 
fortable home, raised a large and intelligent family and enjoying in a 
gruat measure the confidence and esteem of all their neighbors. 

Of the seven children born to them, five grew to manhood and 
womanhood. Sarah, their eldest, married Allen S. Anderson. She died 
in 1890, leaving a family of young children. Addison and David, now 
of Washington state ; Josephine, now Mrs. John William of Colorado; 
and John, of Blaine County, Nebraska. 

ADDISON IMLAY 

One of the first white boys to run over our prairies barefoot. Was 
born at Plattsraouth, September 36, 1859. His father and mother came 
to Seward County when Addison was a young Tjoy in the spring of 1864, 
where he chased cattle and later waded snowdrifts to school at the old 
log school house and completed his education at the high school in 
Seward in about 1880. In 1881 he went to Montana to grow up with 
the country, and eight years later we trail him to Medical Lake, Wash- 
ington, where he is now a rustling business man and is engaged in the 
livery business. But he never forgets his old home and friends in 
Seward County. He is a Master Mason. He still hangs on to single 
blessedness. 

LUCIAN C. JOHNSTON 

A very prominent stockman and dealer in lands. Was born at 
Danvers in McLean County, Illinois, July 12, 1854. Lucian was rather 
a prodigy in his early childhood. He had learned to read at only four 
years of age. He was so dilligent in his studies and so apt that he was 
able to enter the Wesleyan j^iiversity at sixteen. Taught school dur- 
ing his young manhood with much credit to nimself. 

The best trade he. ever made in his life, (he is noted for good 
bargains) was when he found and married Miss Ellen B. Dickenson in 
1878, January 1. Miss Dickenson was a native of Danvers and was a 



90 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



daughter of Major and Mrs. Eliza Dickenson, old settlers of Illinois. 
Mrs. Johnston is a lady of fine attainments and enjoys a large circle of 
friends in and around Seward. 

Mr. Johnston came to Nebraska on an exploring expedition imme- 




Lucian C. Johnston 

diately after his marriage in 1878 and moved to his new home in "K" 
precinct in 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston have one son, now grown to 
manhood. The lad graduated in the Seward schools and later in the 
Lincoln Business College. His father tells iis that Walter is quite a 
successful sheep feeder and it looks as if a career of usefulness is before 
him. Mr. Johnston's aged father lives at the old home at Danvers. 
His mother died October 21. She was born in 1830. Married Decem- 
ber 2. 1852. Came to McLean County in 1858. 

Mr. Johnston has been quite successful as a dealer and feeder of 
stock. He also deals lai'gely in real estate and now owns many tracts 
of land in different parts of Nebraska. They enjoy a commodious and 
pleasant home in Seward. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



91 




Mrs. Lucian C. Johnston 



EDWARD JENSEN 

A Danish lad of thirteen summers saw away beyond the great ocean 
a bright star, and broke away from the old environments, and made his 
way hither, and landed at Milwaukee where he remained until he was 
twenty when he found the western trail and landed in "K" precinct in 
1870 Not yet quite old enough to take a homestead, but could pre-empt, 
and he commenced in that way and homesteaded the next year. Now 
the green young Danish lad owns only seven hundred and eightj' acres 
of our rich land. How's that? 

Somehow Edward found Miss Carrie Peterson and they made a 
bargain October 23, 1881. She was born in Norway, April '6, 1863. 
They have one child, Fvart R. 

Mr. Jensen was born February 19, ,1850. He has a beautiful home 
near Goehner. Has seen all sides of pioneer life but has come off more 
than conqueroi". His life work may be a lesson to the lads of our 



1 



92 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



country. In the thirty-five years of his residence he has accumulated 
such a nice fortune and is now enjoying the fruits of his well spent 
life. 




1 



Claudius Jones 

The pioneer banker of Seward and Seward County. Was born in 
Orleans County, New York, in 1827. He came of Welch stock, as his 
father, David, was born in Wales. Mr. Jones spent his boyhood days 
on the farm and received his education in the common schools of the 
county and when grown engaged in farming for some years. He was 
not robust and aftei due consideration concluded to leave the farm. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 93 

He was married to Miss Harriet I. Weed. She was a native of the 
same county, her parents being the earliest settlers of that part of the 
county. To their union were born two sons and three daughters. 
Claudius, the elder .son. was killed in an accident in Seward in the 




Mrs. Claudius Jones 

autumn of 1875. Harry T., now president of the Jones National Bank, 
of Seward; Mrs. Hattie L. Tipton, of Seward ; Mrs. Annie B. Brown, 
of Kansas City, Missouri ; and Mrs Emma T. Wake of Seward. In 
1859 Mr. Jones took up his residence in Chicago where he was engaged 
in business for some years. At the beginning of the rebellion he lent 
his energy in organizing a regiment and was to be its colonel, but ill 
health forbade it and he was accorded the privilege of naming the com- 
manding officer. Some years later he moved to Monmouth, Illinois, 
where he helped to organize the first national bank of that city, and he 
became its cashier and held that position till 1870, when he had an 
attack of western fever w^hich was fully cured by his removal to 



94 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Lincoln, Nebraska where, as a street broker, he handled many state 
and county warrants to good advantage. In 1878 he made his home at 
Seward wher.; he opened the state bank of Nebraska. Financially this 
undertaking was a grand success. One peculiarity about the state 
bank was it always had plenty of money for all legitimate purposes. 

Mr. Jones' financial skill was a marvel. With him every pro.iect 
seemed to yield profit, and during his career he amassed great wealth, 
becoming our largest land owner and largest stock raiser, besides man- 
aging the affairs of the bank. Mr. Jones was a man of generous nature 
and would never forsake a friend, neither would he forget an enemy. 

JOSEPH JONES 

One of the pioneers of the gi'eat wilderness prairie of the western 
part of our County. Was born in Muskingham County, Ohio, March 
14, 1845, where he I'emained until grown, and where he married Miss 
Mary E. Tracy, in about 1866. They have eight children, viz : Mrs. 
E. F. Barmore, G. G. Jones, A. J. Jones, W. J. Jones, H. J. Jones, E. 
J. Jones. R. W. Jones, and B. H. Jones. 

He came to the county in 1871 and homesteaded five miles north of 
Utica. He was a soldier in Company A, 62nd Ohio volunteer infantry. 
He was a member of the A. F. and A. M. He helped in laying the 
foundations of Utica, and was actively engaged in business there al- 
most from the beginning. He was connected with the Utica Bank as 
one of the directors since 1887 to the day of his death. April 23, 1905. 

HARRY T. JONES 

Is a Seward County boy to all intents and jnirposes as he came here 
when a young lad in 1878. Harry was born at Monmouth, Illinois, June 
1868. It has been our pleasure to know him since he was a ten year 
old lad. He was a little rustler and knew how to earn a nickle then 
and has not forgotten how }et. We remember how he used to peddle 
milk or carry coal upstairs to get a little money to have a good time 
with the boys. He passed thiough the grades of the Seward schools 
with credit. 

He has grown to be a business man of the first rank. Was a long 
time cashier of the Jones National Bank and took the presidency of 
the institution upon the resignation of his father, in 1895, and has re- 
mained in that position to date. As a business man and a neighbor Mr. 
Jones is very pojiular, as the business of the bank shows in the enor- 
mous increase in its deposits, they being only a small amount when he 
took the management in 1895 and having increased to four hundred fif- 
ty-oJif- thousand dollars, according to the June statement of 1904. Mr. 
Jone.s is our largest land holder also. 

He is enterpriMiug as well as liberal in his dealings. He is a wide 
awake, earnest rei)ublican and has often been chairman of the county 
central committee. He was made Knight's Templar in the grand old 
Masonic fraternity. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



95 




01 

C 
o 

h 
>. 

u 
m 

X 



WILLIAM WALLACE KONKRIGHT 

Came to "M" township in 1870. Born in 1829 in Vermont, went 
to New York state with his parents in 1839. went to Indiana, from 
there to Iowa in 1852, where he was married in 1854 to Miss Marie 
Siverlj'. She was born in Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1830. She 
came to the territory of Iowa in 1843 with her parents, where she 
leceived her education. She became a teacher. She was well known 
through the community as a thorough historian. Her home was for 
many years with the Presbyterian church of Seward. She was a mem- 
ber of the Woman's Auxiliary of the G. A. R. Post. Died June 13, 
1902. 

Mr. Konkright enlisted in the 8th Iowa infantry, served nearly five 



96 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

years, was at Corinth, Vicksburg, Shiloh, and other battles. They came 
to Seward County in 1870 and settled at Beaver Crossing. They retired; 
from the farm and took up their residence in Seward in 1899, where] 
Mrs. Konkright was buried. The old gentleman is now seventy-five 
yeais old, hale and hearty and reads easily without glasses. He is a. 
republican from away back and takes supreme delight in pouring hot 
shot into the camp of the other fellows. 

There were born to them : Milon, now dead ; John, Almena, Lewis, 
Devo, William, now dead ; Alice and Eugene. Mr. Konkright cast his 
first vote in 1850 and for General Scott in 1852. 

Mrs. Konkright carried to her grave at her advanced age thirty two, 
sound teeth. 

WILLIAM KNIGHT 

One among the oldest residents of "B" precinct. Was born in 
Winchester, Indiana, July 1, 1882. At eighteen he came to Dallas 1 
County, Iowa. Two years later he found it convenient to see the girl 
he had left behind him and turned in and assisted his prospective 
father-in-law to move vvest\^ ard, where matters would be more conven- 
ient for the young people. In 1845 Miss Isyphena Mothtt Viecame hiS' 
bride. This happy event occurred in Jtisper County, Iowa. Si.x chil- 
dren were horn to them. Two died in infancy. Those living are: 
Mary E, now Mrs. J. N. Sheeley ; Luther, Sarah E.. now Mrs. George 
H Terwilliger, and Elias B. The family came to Seward County in 
1869, and took the land as homestead here where they resided until last 
spring. This old homestead is on section 20, town 12, range 3 east of 
sixth principal meiridian and is now a beautiful home. 

Mrs. Knight was born at Winchester. Indiana, in 1830, December 16, 
where she grew to womanhood. In the old days Mr. Knight was post 
master at Groveland, now discontinued. Was school treasurer for i 
twelve years from the organization of district number sixty-seven and 
in all has held office eighteen years. Has also at times been precinct 
assessor. 

Mr. and Mrs. Knight, during all the years of their residence, have 
been considered among our most respected and w^orthy citizens. 

A beautiful incident occurred September 1, 1904, when the celebra- 
tion of the golden wedding of these good old people. About one hun- 
dred people consisting of four generations of the family and old neigh- 
bors, friends and relatives gathered at the home to pay the tribute of 
love and respect. 

One notable incident at the gathering was the presence of six wit- 
nesses of the wedding fifty years before, viz: Hon. Wm. Hickman, 
Erastus M. Hickman, Agustus Hickman, Mrs. G. W. Hickman, H. L. 
Moffit, Miss Irena Moffit. 

ELISHA KINNEY 

Strayed westward in 1872 from his old Ohio home and bought the 

old A. J. Woliingford farm near Camden mills that used to be. Mr. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 97 

Kinney was born in February 24, 1840, in Belmont County, Ohio. Was 
educated at the high school. At twenty began his career as teacher 
and followed that profession six years. In 1866, May 4, he married Miss 
Narcissa McKirahan, of his native place. They have five children: 
Emma O , now Mrs. T. F. Thompson; William S., Alya R., Melissa 
D. , now Mrs. J. E. Brong ; and Alice Pearl, yet at home, but who is 
engaged as assistant teacher with U. O Anderson at Lafayette, Colorado. 
Mr. Kinney is an old time member of the I. O. O. F. lodge No. 18, at 
Milford. The family church home is with the Milford Congregational 
church. 

Mr. Kinney taught school at old Camden in an early day. and also 
in district No. 84. He is an energetic citizen and at times has been the 
standard bearer of his party for County offices, but unfortunately for 
Mr. Kinney his part}' was in the minority, and a good, straight busi- 
ness man was left out in the cold, but he is a success, office or no office. 
Mr. Kinney has been postmaster, justice of the peace, and is now a 
notary public. He is from the Scotch Irish stock. Although he was a 
pioneer in our new land he has taken pride in educating his children. 
The most of them are graduates of Doane College and one is a promi- 
nent teacher. One, William S. , is a lieutenant in the U. S. cavalry, 
3rd regiment and Alva R. is president of the Ravenna Milling Com- 
pany. Alva and wife are gradviates of Doane College. 

JOSEPH A. KINSINGER 

The oldest general merchant in Milford. Was born February 11, 
1857, in Butler County, Ohio. When a lad of thirteen he came to 
Missouri and struck the road to Nebraska in 1S!)1 and it landed him at 
Milford where he commenced his successful career as merchant. Just 
before coming west he made a little bargain with Miss Mary E. Kenagy, 
and they were married August 20. 1889. Miss Kenagy was born Novem- 
ber 1, 1861, in Logan County, Ohio. They have five children: James 
W., Homer B., Ruth G., Roy S., and Ralph A. 

Mr. and Mrs. Kinsinger are working members of the M. E. church 
and he is also a member of the A. O. U. W. Is a wide-awake business 
man and full of enterprise. 

MISS MARGARET KEALY 

Late superintendent of our industrial home. Was born at Copen- 
hagen in New Y'ork, March 23, 1857. Her parents moved to Decatur 
County, Illinois in 1864, and there Margaret began her school life. In 
1865 the family moved to Clinton. Iowa. In that bustling young city 
Margaret came in contact with the world and when her school life had 
ended she chose the vocation of nurse. In 1875 we find her in Crawford 
county, Iowa, but she was so thoroughly imbued with the spirit of 
adventure that in 1885 we find her at Hastings, Nebraska, where in her 
noblo calling she attracted such attention that in 1902 she was chosen 
to her late honorable position. Miss Kealy is a member of the Catholic 



98 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

church and is a most worthy Christian lady and excellent superin- 
tendent. To her we are largely indebted for the valuable information 
that we are ab)e to give to the reader in regard to the home. 

THOMAS H. KITCHEN 

Was born in Clark County, Illinois, October 14, 1840, and there he 
remained until he came to Seward County in 1884. On October 6, 1873, 
he was married to Miss Ellen Haskins in Coles County, Illinois. She 
was boin in Coles County, Illinois, May 12, 1838. They have no cnil- 
dren. They settled in "E" precinct. 

Mr. Kitchen is a member of the I. O. O. F. , the Modern Woodmen 
and also of the Woodmen of the World. Belongs to the Baptist church. 

ELIAS B. KNIGHT 

Came to Nebraska in early childhood with his parents. Was born 
in Jasper County. Iowa, November 9, 1868, and the removal to "B" 
precinct occurred in 1869. so Elias may be claimed as a Seward County 
boy. He attended the common schools until he out grew them and then 
took a course at the S«vvard high school and graduated with honors in 
the class of 1889. In 1893 he forined the acquaintance of an intelligent 
3'oung teacher, Miss Mar}- Dauchy, and as they looked at things about 
alike, they were married June 4. 

She was a Nebraska girl born in Johnson County, August 19, 1869. 
Two bright children bless the home : Oma I. and Mildred I. Mr. 
Knight is a Modern Woodman and a member of the Ben Hur and is 
scribe of the Gosper Court. Mrs. Knight is a member of the Baptist 
church. The young people tried to make a home at Janesville Wiscon- 
sin for two years but of course they returned to their first love and are 
now comfortably situated on a nice farm in "B" precinct. 

PHILLIP KLENCK 

A cigar maker by trade. Was born ot German parents in, Lincoln 
Illinois, April 9, 1861 and came to Seward in October, 1878. Has been 
all these >ears a faithful worker. Is now contemplating making 
his home in the Rosebud reservation. He is a good quiet citizen, a 
member of the Royal Highlanders and also of the Evangelical church. 

CHARLES D. KNOX 

When a boy of eighteen years Charley caught the western fever and 
came to Seward County in 1873. He was born in Belmont County, Ohio, 
in 1855. His parents moved to Illinois in 1865. Was married to one of 
the Seward County girls, Miss Elmira A., daughter of Hon. William 
Hickman, in 1879. 

She was born at Newton, Iowa, in 1862 and came here with her 
parents in 1868. They have four children : Clarence, Clara, Fern and 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 99 

Eva yet at home. Mr. and Mrs. Knox spent a few years in Grant 
County, this state but returned to their first love and he has been en- 
gaged in the livery business here for the last four years, here he has a 
fine lot of stock for the business. He belongs to the I. O. O. F. and 
also to the United Workmen. 

CARL G. A. KOCH 

One of the founders of the gi'eat German settlement in the eastern 
part of our county. Was boi'n in the province of Brandenburg, Ger- 
many, February 7, 1842. At twenty-six he had caught sight of the 
bright western star and broke away from the old environment and in 
October 1868, we find the young man in Missouri where he found his 
best girl. Miss Minnie Schaberg, and was married at Warrentown, 
March 4 1869. 

She was born February 23, 1845. at Warrentown. They had born to 
them seven children, viz: Charles E. , Edward H. , Ellen M., Adolph 
H. , Arthur F. , Otto, died in infancy; Miiinie M. , now Mrs. H. Spear. 
In the spring of ]870 the young couple came to the wild hills of Middle 
Creek and homesteaded land in section 24, in "H" precinct, here he 
broke the first sod in that locality. Mr. Koch is a very quiet, unassum- 
ing citizen, but for all that he has made his mark in his adopted home 
where he has raised a large and intelligent family. One of his boys 
born on our own soil, Edward H. Koch, is now serving the people the 
second term as superintendent of public instruction. 

Mr. Koch served as supervisor six years and as assessor for his pre- 
cinct four years. Before coming to this country he served in the 
German army over three years in the German and Austrian war. He 
is a member of the society of Koeniggratz. Mr. Koch is an all around, 
first class Gei'man-American citizen. 

EDWARD H. KOCH 

A Seward County lad born among the hills southeast of German- 
town, March 25, 1887. Went to the common school and helloed his 
father on the farm but developed a keen desire to make something of 
himself, took a course in the Lincoln Normal and in 1895 commenced 
teaching, and his success was such as to attract general attention and 
in 1890 he was elected superintendent of public instruction for Seward 
County. But prior to this, August 30, 1899. he captured the heart and 
hand of Miss Grace, daughter of our old pioneer friend, Charles Lyon 
another child of the frontier, born April 1875, and for years one of the 
noble band of Seward County teachers. They have one little son, Carl 
Lee. 

Mr. Koch is a little bashful and forbids the author to say that as 
an educator and high school oflicer he is a success but we will say this, 
the people passed judgment on his case by re-electing him in 1903. We 
trust that a big future is before this Seward County boy that had the 
nerve to forge to the front, by dint of his own indomitable will. 



100 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

CALR F. KROEGER 

The owner of the oldest boot and shoe house in the county. Was 
born June 17, 1849, in Germany. Came to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1865 and 
to Seward in 1871. where he has stitched and pegged away since for 
years until now he owns a very fine store full of first class goods. In 
1870 he found just the right girl in Miss Sophia Rost at Cleveland, and 
they were married in that city in 185li. They have nine living chil- 
dren, viz; Louisa, Carl, Jr., Edward, Lucreta, now Mrs. Chris May: 
land ; Gertrude, Paul, Oscar, Clara and Pauline. The church home is 
with the Lutherans. 

Mr. Kx'oeger is an energetic business man and a splendid type of 
German- American citizenship. 

HENRY W. KRUEGER 

Was a native of the sucker state, born at Lake Zurich, Lake County, 
March 27, 1859. He found his way to Iowa and May 17, 1888, he won 
the hana and heart of Miss Mary Schuknecht. She was born in Bramer 
County, June 19, 1867. They have five children, viz : Martha, Edward, 
Arthur, and a pair of twins, Martin and Manda. Came to York 
County in 1888 and to Seward County in 1895 and now owns the old 
Beaty farm one mile northeast of Seward. Has a most beautiful home. 
He is a great admirer of red pigs and has a very fine herd of them. 

SOLOMON D. LANCE 

A pioneer of "N" township who has grown up with the country 
that has come forward by leaps and bounds but Mr. Lance has kept 
pace with the land of his adoption. He and his good wife pulled out 
of the mud and brush of old Fulton County, Illinois, with a team, and 
came all the weary way across Iowa, with a steady eye fixed on Seward 
County where they landed and set their stakes at the now beautiful 
home on section 21 in "N' precinct in the spring of 1874 and got ready 
to welcome the grasshoppers in the following summer. 

Mr. Lance was born July 24, 1849. and was raised a farmer boy. 
Somehow Solomon strayed away to Aurora, Illinois, and found the 
young Miss Elizabeth E. Beebe, to whom he proposed in due time and 
September 14, 1873, they were married at Aurora. She was born in 
Kane County, Illinois, October 20, 1850. Their children are not yet 
named. Mr. Lance owns a first class farm of three hundred twenty 
acres, well improved, with a beautiful dwelling. He is a member of 
the I. O. O. F. Church home of the family is with the Christian 
church. 

HARRY D. LANDES 

Here is a young man that has lived so nearly all his life in Seward 
County that we can claim him as a product of our own soil, as he was 
transplanted from Sterling, Illinois, when one year old. Was born 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 101 

July 17, 1878, and came with his parents to Milford in 1879, where the 
lad grew to manhood. His father was for many years a merchant in 
Milford. The boy attended the village school and later he completed a 
course in the high school of Lincoln and graduated with honors, after 
which in 1899, he graduated from the university of Nebraska and re- 
ceived the degree of B. S. In 1901 ne took the law degree of LL. D. 
and was admitted to practice in all the courts of Nebraska. He imme- 
diately came to Seward and opened an office under the firm name of 
Landes and Schick where it seems a bright future is before him. 

Mr. Landes served as deputy clerk of the supreme court of Nebraska 
with much credit for six months. He is a member of the Masonic order 
and also an active member of the Sons of Herman. We are always glad 
to see our Seward County boys come to the front and here is one that 
we will more than probably hear from in the years to come. 

JAMES T. LOGAN 

Son of Hugh Logan and grandson of J. H. Betzer, our veteran 
editor. Was in California during the Philippine war and enlisted in 
the regular army August 14, 1900. Was sent to Manilla and assigned to 
Company L, 30th U. S. infantry, where he served till March 1902, as 
corporal. Was then at Fort Sheridan until November, 1-902, when he 
was discharged, but would not stay discharged. Re-enlisted in Com- 
pany S. 20th Q. S. infantry, February 10, 1903, and returned to the 
Philippines with his regiment and was detailed as clerk in the Adju- 
tant's office. The regiment is yet at the post of duty in our far away 
islands. 

HUGH LOGAN 

Born in Ayrshire, Scotland, August 10, 1848, and transplanted to 
our more fertile and genial soil in 18(39, by the banks of the "father of 
waters" at Keokuk, Iowa. He found Seward in 1880, where a Seward 
girl attracted his attention and September 2, 1880, he married Miss 
America A., daughter of our veteran editor, J. H. Betzer. 

She was born in Marion County, Iowa, March 27, 1859. They have 
four boys and an adopted daughter: James T. , William R. , Welby H. 
Donald F. , and Alpha M. 

Mr. Logan is a carpenter and builder. Has by industry and fru 
gality built a nice home. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and the 
M. W. A. A very trustworthy and respected citizen. 

BENJAMIN LAUBER 
An Illinois boy born in Livingston County, April o, 1871. He 
found Nebraska at eleven and found a home in west "O" precinct 
where he has grown up to manhood and May 21, 1895, he won the hand 
and heart of Miss Phoebe Stauffer and was married at the Amish 
church. 

She was born in Livingston County, Illinois, April 15, 1876. They 



102 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

have six children, viz : Adaline, May, David, now dead ; Daniel, Mattie 
and Joseph. 

Mr. Lauber was raised a farmer boy and continues in that honora- 
ble calling with success. He is located in that splendid settlement west 
of Milford. Church home is with the Amish Menonite people. 

REV. FREDERIC W. LEAVITT 
Pastor in charge of ttie Congregational church of Seward. Was 
born at Monticello, Iowa, February 11, 1873. Was the son of a Congre- 
gational minister. When six years old the parents made Nebraska their 
home and sojourned at Ashland, here Fred commenced his studies. 

At thirteen we find him in the Norfolk high school. He graduated 
in the class of ISO!) at Doane College and in 1896 was assistant principal 
in the high school at Crete. Next we find him at Andover Seminary 
three years, where he graduated in 1899. Just then,, in August he mar- 
ried Miss Jessie B. McGrew, of Geneva, Nebraska. She was born at 
Wyoming, Iowa, October 22, 1875. They have one babe, Carolyn. 

Rev. Leavitt was pastor four years at West Point, Nebraska, and 
was called to Seward in 190H. 

THEODORE LEGER 

Was born in old Normandy in France, March 2, 1833. Took a nor- 
mal couise of study in Paris, commencing at sixteen and graduating at 
eighteen. Then commenced his career as teacher in the south of 
France. Married to Miss Augustine Chostel September (i. 18()(). Five 
children, all yet living, were born to them as follows -. Theodore A., 
now a minister in Idaho ; Eva, now Mrs. Bai-os; Bertha, now Mrs. Rum- 
mell ; Paul H. , and Maurice V. 

Mrs. Leger died at the family home in "I'" precinct. December 17, 
1879. Mr Leger came to this country in ISIKi and made his home in 
Illinois and came to Seward County in 1873. Married to Mrs. Grace 
Winhouse in 1883. Five children were born to them, viz: Edgar M. , 
Ida R. , Grace X., Robert and Alphonso. The church house of the 
family is with the French Evangelical Presbyterians. 

Has beautifully improved the farm and has a nice home with fruit, 
flowers and shrubery. 

A. LEAVENS 

The present probate judge of Seward County. Was born January 
10, 1851, at Bethel, Ohio, but did most of his growing in Illinois and 
Iowa. April 20, 1874, he married Miss Maggie E. Skinner in Bell 
Plains, Iowa. She was born at Portage, Wisconsin, April 20, 1859. They 
have three children, viz: Mae E. Casler; Nellie Rutledge and Maude, 
J. Leavens, who died March 16, 1892, aged thirteen years. 

Mr. Leavens came to Utica in 1888, October 13. Was raised a 
farmer boy, and at twenty learned the blacksmith trade, but got very 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



103 



tired pounding hot iron and read law with J. J. Mosnat at Bell Plain 
and was admitted to the bar of Iowa, December 1883, at Vinton. Was 
appointed judge of Seward County, March 15. 19U2, and elected in No- 
vember 1902, re-elected 1903. He is a stalwart democrat and belongs to 
I. O. O. F. , M, W. A. Church home is Presbyterians. 




104 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

DR. WILLIAM K. LOUHRIDGE 

A young but successful man in his honored profession. Was born 
among the rugged and rockj- hills at Wilksbarre. Pennsylvania, March 
24. 1874. Somehow he found the western trail Avhen but five years old 
and his first home on Nebraska soil was at Plattsmoiith, the place 
looking most like the old home of any to be found in the west. 

Was educated there in the high school. Took a medical course at 
Cotner university. Then in the Chicago Homeopath College, and at 
Rush and later at Medico Chirugal at Philadelphia Commenced prac- 
tice at Pleasant Dale, Nebraska in 1894, but came to Milford and estab- 
lished the hospital in 1900, where his success is phenominal. Doctor is 
a 32nd degree Mason. Is an Odd Fellow in high standing. A member 
of the A. O. U. W., M. W. A., K. O. T. M., Highlanders, Sons and 
Daughters of Protection and Royal Neighbors, and is the Examining 
Physician in all these orders. We are not advised what other orders he 
contemplates joining. 

This boy raised in Nebraska is a success anyway. In beautiful 
Milford he owns a splendid hospital equipped with all modern appli 
ances, where the sick may have the best of attention. The building is 
situated in a well kept park, embowered with shady shrubs and flowers. 

CHARLES LEIBROCK 

One of the first born boys of "H" precinct. Came to brighten the 
frontier home of his parents March 7, 1870, near the old stone church on 
section 28 "'H" town. 

Charley was a child of the wilderness and here among the rolling 
hills and tiowing brooks he has spent his life as a farmer bov and still, 
makes his home with his widowed mother at the old home to which 
the family came in 1866 when only two other families lived in all that 
region, the Grotz family and the Brant family. Charley is a good, 
faithful boy and is deserving of a good prosperous life and a good wife. 



SAMUEL LONG (Deceased. ) 

Was born April 80, 1811, in Virginia and there remained till 
grown, when he went to Indiana where he married Miss Permelia 
Rogers, March 1, 1843. She was born about 1820 in Kentucky. They 
raised six children, viz: ElmyraE.. now dead ; Levina now Mrs. Snow ; 
Elva S. now, Mrs. William Wait; Simeon A., Loila, now Mrs. F. 
Gowey and Luena C. , now Mrs. I. Neff. 

The old people came to Seward County and located on the farm 
now owned and occupied by the widow about the 10th of June 1863. 
Mrs. Long is one of the three oldest living residents of the county that 
were grown when they arrived. The other two are Mrs. W. J. Thomp- 
son of Beaver Crossing and Job Reynolds of Ruby. 

At eighty-four the old lady seems in good health and spirits and 
yet able to do much housework. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



105 



.<^I^V, 




■9D 

c 






106 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

CHARLES L. LYON 

One of the ver3' first to break the &od on the ereat plain between 
Seward and where Germantown now stands. Was born in DuPage 
County, Illinois, May 10, 1846. In his young manhood he caught 
sight of the bright western star and like the "'other wise" men he fol- 
lowed it and found the goal of his ambition in our goodly land, where 
he found a homestead on section 12, in "G" town, in February, 1868. 
He was a lone bachelor and his only neighbors were Daddy Cooper, Cyrus 
Fetterman, a colony of prairie dogs and plenty of Coyotes. 

Charley used to go to the little village of Lincoln occasionally and 
somehow he caught sight of Miss Sarah Davison and she took a liking 
to Charley and wanted to have an interest in that homestead. They 
were married February 6, 1872. 

She was born July 12, 1848, in Vermillion County, Illinois. They 
have four children and have lost three, viz: Grace A., now Mrs. E. H. 
Koch; Delbert H. , the next died in early infancy, Nellie A.. Mabel E. , 
died in February 1894; Chester C. , and G. Eva. 

Mr. Lyon enlisted in the 17th Illinois cavalry and put in his time 
chasing bushwhackers in Missouri. He is a member of the Seward G. 
A. R. Post. The church home is with the Presbyterians. Mr Lyon 
owns one of the most beautiful arms in the county. Everything is 
up-to-date on that farm 

JOHN LUSHER 

Was born ^larch, 1856. in Boone County, Illinois, and was raised 
there and married Miss Rosanna Kreighaum in April, 1876, in Living- 
ston County, Illinois. 

She was born in 1858 in Tazvvell County, Illinois. They have five 
children, viz: Julia L.. now Mrs. Parish; Lewis, Walter, Elmer, and Ros- 
anna. They settled in "A" precinct in 1880, on a farm. 

MARTIN MADSON 

One of Denmarks best men. who saw the bright star in the western 
world in his young manhood in 1867, and located in Wisconsin, but 
soon again took the trail that led to "K" precinct, and landed on the 
wild prairie homestead an old bachelor in August, 1879. First in a 
dugout, then a soddie. In 1877, November 12, the best girl that he 
had left behind him, came to claim her own Martin, and Miss Carrie 
Petersen changed her name. She was born in Denmark, August 21, 
1846. These good people h&ve three children, viz: Martin, Bertha L., 
now one of our teachers, and Christeen B. 

Mr. Madison was born Sei)tember 29, 1837. He owns a most beau- 
tiful home near the village of Goebner. Was one of the first to break 
the sod in his precinct and knows all about pioneer life. Church home 
is with the Presbyterians. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



107 



DR. FRANKLIN A. MARSH 

One of Seward Countj's eminent physicians. Was born at Quincy, 
Illinois, September 14, 1856, when he commenced his education in the 
city schools. 




Dr. F. A. Marsh's Dwelling 



He studied and practiced pharmacy for seven years, and thus pre- 
pared the way for a more successful course in medicine at the Iowa 
university, wnere he graduated in the class of 1889 in the Homeopathy 
medical department and immediately commenced his professional career 
at Malvern, Iowa. 

Somehow the doctor, before he was vet a doctor, won the heart jind 
hand of Miss Martha Ward of La Prairie, Illinois, and was married 
December 25. 1877. 

She was a native of Arcadia, Illinois, born November 6, 1858. 
Mrs. Marsh has proven a valuable helpmeet to the doctor in his life 
work, always ready and willing to lend a helping hand in relieving 
anyone in distress. She is wonderfully gifted in music and renders the 
church valuable service. 

They have one daughter, Mabel, yet at home. In 1891 they made 
their home in Seward where the doctor soon took a high rank in the 
noble profession. 

The family church home is with the M. E. people. The doctor is 



108 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

a member of the pension board. He belongs to the I. O. O. F. ,the 
Modern Woodmen, the A. O. U. W., Royal Highlanders, Degree of 
Honor and Royal Neighbors and is medical examiner for each of them 
and also for several old line companies. He is a direct descendant of 
Captain Ebenezer Marsh of the battle of Lexington, being a great 
grandson. 

CHARLES F. MATZKE 

Came to our good land when a yearling and has snuffed the breezes 
of our prairie about all his life. Was born in the Badger state in 
Green County, September 13, 1873, and came to Milford in 1874, and 
when he came to the proper age he captured a Seward County girl, Miss 
Elorrie Fo.«ler, March 1. 1894, at Seward. She was born at Milford 
August 19, 1874. They have two children: Stanley A., and Goldie E. 

Charles was raised on a farm on section 30, northeast of Milford in 
"I" precinct. Commenced the mercantile business at Goehner in 1902, 
and seems to make a success of it. He is now the postmaster there. 
Is a member of K. O. T. M. Church home is with the Evangelical 
Association. 

JOHN MAUER 

Was born in Alsace, France, and his parents came to Iowa when 
he was a lad of six years. John was born March 13, 1846. Was raised 
in Davis County, Iowa. John lived a bachelor until thirty-two when he 
married Miss Leah Bender, January 29, 1878, in Henr}- County, Iowa. 

She was born in Ontario, Oxford County, April 27, 1864. They 
have four children, viz: Amanda D. , Ehner, Emma and Edwai'd J. 

Mr. Mauer came to the present home on section 11, "N" town in 
1892. Mrs. Mauer died at the family home June 5, 1901. 

Mr. Mauer is a first class farmer. Church home is with the Amish 
people 

CHRIS MAYLAND 
One of the bright boys born on the frontier that started out in life 
with a purpose to accomplish something. Was born on the father's 
homestead on Lincoln Creek December 22, 1870, and was one of the 
first white children burn in "F" precinct. Educated in the common 
frontier schools. Married October 14, 1902, to a Seward born girl. Miss 
Licettie B. Krogei". She was born Feb. 20, 1881, and educated in the 
schools of Seward Mr. Mayland commenced in the stock trade at 
twenty-three and has stuck to the text until today he ranks with the 
best stockmen of the county. Owns a splenid farm only a mile out of 
the city. Full of energy and business. 

HENRY MAYLAND 

A Seward County boy. Was one of the first born boys of "H" pre- 
cinct. April 5, 1873, Henry came to light and life. He has grown up 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 109 

among us and served his time as a farmer boy. February 26, 1897. was 
married to Miss Annie Imig at Seward. She was born at Mineer, 
Illinois, January 1,1877, and came to Seward County in her early child- 
hood. They have one child, Alma. The young jieople now live in 
"J" precinct. The church home is with the Lutherans. 

REV. WALTER D. MORGAN 

Is truly a child of the frontier and if his birth had been postponed 
a little over two years we might have claimed him as a Seward County 
boy. Was born in Otoe County. January 27, 1858, and his father, 
mother and grandparents came to Blue river just near where Ruby 
station now stands, in the spring of 1861, where his younger sister, 
Ellen, the first white child of the county, was born the same year. 

Walter grew to manhood in this wilderness and was nearly grown 
before the cars reached Seward. With very meager opportunities for 
an education yet he was of gooa mettle, and determined to make a man 
of himself, anlhedid. June 27, 1882, he married a lady who came 
from Augusta, Maine, Miss Rebecca Perkins. She was born April 2, 
1863, and came to Nebraska twenty-eight years ago. There have been 
born to them: Bertha, now Mrs. S. B. Cox; Ethel, Firman V., Grace 
I., and Leroy. 

Mr. Morgan studied for the ministry and commenced preaching in 
1892 and is a very successful and eloquent preacher. At present pastor 
of the United Brethren church and also preacher at the soldiers" home 
and at the industrial home. 

This is another fine instance of what the children of the wilderness 
can do where there is a determined will. With scarcely any opportun- 
ity for mental training or classic education he stands erect as a valu- 
able teacher of the people, loved and honored by his church and the 
community. 

THOMAS MORTON 

Was born in the Badger state in Green County, January 10, 1867, 
and came to Seward County in early childhood and helped his father, 
Mr. Frank Morton, open a farm upon south east of Seward in "J" 
precinct. Thomas married Miss Emma Scheerer July 19, 1892, at 
Seward. 

She was born February 15, 1871, in Illinois. They have five child- 
ren, viz: Ciee R., Abraham J., Herchell B., Gladys I., and Barbara F. 

Mr. Mortin lives in Seward and is an employee of the city at this 
time. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. The Morton family came 
to the county in 1873. 

JOHN W. McCAULEY 

One of the first settlers of "M" town. Was born in Jefferson 
County, Pennsylvania, in 1835. His parents moved to Ohio in 1832, 



110 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

but the old folks were not satisfied and as the new state of Iowa was 
waiting to welcome people in 1851. they came west where Mr. Mc- 
Cauley remained till a new attack of western fever landed him in 
Seward County in 1869. 

Was married to Miss E. Huffman in Clark County, Ohio, where she 
was born April 30, 1829. They were the parents of twelve children, 
viz: Harvey W., MaryC. , now dead, was the wife of D. F. Haney ; 
Florence A., now Mrs. N. A. Wilsie; Sheldon B. , David S., Fred N., 
Elmer E. , Roy R. , Porter W. , Guy S. , and Anna M. 

Mrs. McCauley died October 27, 1898. She was a member of the 
Evangelical church. Mr. McCauley has retired from farm work on ac- 
count of advanced age. Was a soldier in the Mexican war under Gen- 
eral Scott. Was wounded in both legs at Cerogoi'do but no bones were 
broken. Received his discharge at the city of Mexico. He saw the 
battles at the city gates and the surrender of the city, also saw the 
battle of Chepultapec, but could not participate. Although disabled, 
he stood for the draft in Iowa for the war of the rebellion. When Mr. 
McCauley came to Beaver Crossing and took his homestead there were 
only a very few settlers. He remembers Chris Clark, Phillip Michael 
and Isaiah Michael, Daniel Millspaugh, John Osborne and Ross Nichols 
who came at about the same time. These were settlers in "M" pre- 
cinct. These people suffered many hardships in the pioneer days. 

JOHN H. MERRILL 

An English born boy with many experiences. The parents came to 
Painesville. Ohio, when John was six months old, but they took a 
notion to try Canada. They soon took the backward track and made a 
permanent home in Ohio. John was born in Cheshire, England, July 
27, 1854. He married Miss Catherine Shields. June 22, 1874. She was 
born in County (iray, Ontario, February 29, 1855. There were born to 
thetr two boys, Wilber and Edgar. 

Mrs. Merrill died, date unknown. September 14, 1886, Mr. Merrill 
married Miss Lucy A. Caruthers. She was born at Tecumseh, Canada, 
November 19,1863. Three children vrere born to them, viz: Ethel, Hazel 
and Lucy. Mrs Merrill died December 6, 1894 at Pleasant Dale. 

January 22, 1896 Mr. Merrill married his wife's sister. Miss Belle 
Caruthers, also a native of Ontario, born October 22, 1865. 

To this union were born two children. Arthur and Wiston. The 
family came to Pleasant Dale in February 1880 and located in "P" 
precinct. He owned part of the land on which the village is built, and 
which he platted as a town site, and from that day to this he has with 
might and main struggled to help his town to the front. He now owns 
and is president of the bank and is proprietor of a large hardware and 
implement house. Is one of Nebraska's builders and a valuable 
business man and citizen. The family church home is with the M. E. 
church. He is a leading member of the time honored A. F. and A. M. 
and als(j of the Modern Woodmen and a member of the school board. 
They say he keeps his end up in all public enterprises. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 111 




t^ 




6 

6 



112 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

GEORGE C. McKAY 

The founder of Staplehurst and one among the first that broke the 
sod on the great prairie in "C" precinct. Was born among the rocky 
hills of York state September 14, 1807, and there remained during his 
boyhood. In 1839, July 13. Mr. McKay married Miss Melissa Knapp at 
Charleston, Ohio. Two children were born to them, viz : Manning 
and Mrs. Wadsworth. Mrs. McKay died some years later. Mr. McKay 
was married the second time in 1845 tC Mrs. Rachel Hathaway in Ohio. 
She was born October 23, 1810, in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. They 
had four children, viz : Mrs. A. A. Weaver, D. C. McKay, Homer M. 
and Albert A. 

The family located in "C" precinct in 1870, where Mr. McKay 
took a prominent part in the development of his locality Was for 
years a justice of the peace and county commissioner of the county. 
The church home of Mr. McKay was with the Christian church and 
Mrs. McKay was a Presbyterian. Mrs. McKay died February 23, 1894. 
Mr. McKay died June 28, 1882. 

IRA McCOLLISTER 

Was a native of Ohio, Dorn June 15, 1844, among the blue clay hills 
at Chillicothe, but found his way to Johnson County, Iowa in boyhood. 
Married Miss Lucy Nickerson in September, 1867, at Toledo, Iowa. 
She was born March 3. 1847, at Clarksfield, Ohio. 

They had eight children, viz: Alpha G. , Effie G., Graul, Milton 
S. , Stanley G. , Myra H. , died at eleven ; Ira C. , died in infancy ; and 
Gerald T. 

Mr. McCollister came to "'L" precinct in December, 1872. Ira en- 
listed, June, 1862, in Company A, 22nd Iowa volunteer infantry, and 
he was commissioned officer. Served in the armies of the Mississippi. 
Was at th^) Gulf and on the Red river, was in Virginia and the Caro- 
linas. Was discharged in September, 1865. He was overseer of the 
state grange the first year. In his religious belief he is a Quaker. 
Present home is at Bonner Springs, Kansas, here he is commander of 
the G. A. R. No. 317. 

ALBERT M. McGREW 

An Illinois lad born in McDonough County, October 3, 1863, and 
struck the great western trail at sixteen and landed in Seward County 
in 1879. Albert was raised a farmej" boy and has wisely pursued that 
vocation. In 1886, September 15, he captured Miss Martha E. Bain at 
Seward. She was a Missouri girl born in Harrison County, August 4, 
1863. 

Seven children have come to bless their home, viz: Lloyd M., 
Winnie G. , Albert C, Forest A., Jessie C. , Carrie R. , and Nina M. 

Alliert's father settled near Bee in 1879, but Albert now is a farmer 
five miles north of Seward. He is a member of the A. F. and A. 
M. also of the Ben Hur. Church home is with the Christian church at 
Seward. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA ll3 

REV. JOSEPH MERRILL 

Was born September 2, 18B1, in England. While yet a young man 
he canght sight of the star of empire in the west but somehow he got 
wrongly loi-ated and landed in Canada. He soon found his mistake 
and in 1872 we find him in Ohio, but before leaving Canada he married 
Miss Jane E. Christener, a Canadian girl, so Uncle Sam's dominions 
was the gainer by his sojourn in that country. We gained two in 
place of one. 

She was born February 1, 1839. They were the parents of eleven 
children, viz: Elizabeth P. W. , now Mrs. ;E. Lewis; Frank J. W. , 
Samuel A. V. , Susan C. , now Mrs. A. Westhover, Fred H. , Martha F. , 
now Mrs. F. A. Bunn ; Walter H. , Charles E. . Hamilton B. , William 
J. W. ana Richard A. C. 

Rev. Merrill came to Seward County in 1881 and located at the 
Oak Grroves. He was a local preacher in the M. E. church for many 
years but never took to the regular work of the ministry. After a 
long life in the labor of love he was called home October (5, 1890. Mrs. 
Merrill died December 13, 1901. 

(GEORGE A. MERRIUM 

Born in that old stony state vvhei-e the sheep have to wear steel 
points on their noses to get the grass from the crevices of the rocks, 
Vermont, November 12, 1850, but his case was not hopeless, as his 
father had heard of the better country in the west, and in 1866 they 
landed at Milford. George taught school while a young man. Was 
married to Miss Sarah F.Martin, a Milford girl, in 1878. She was born 
in Pennsylvania in 1851. Three children came to the home : EvaE. , 
Jessie L. , and Faye M. 

He is a member of the A. F. and A. M., L O. O. F., M. W. A ., 
and A. O. U. W. Church home of the family is with the Congrega- 
tionlists. 

Mr. Merrium has been clerk of the district court sixteen years, a mem- 
ber of the Seward school board, member of the Republican state cen- 
tral connnittee and chairman of the county central committee two 
terms. He is the present secretary of the Mutual Protective Fire 
Association. 

LOYD H. McKILLIP 

A Seward boy from start to finish. Son of Hon. D. C. McKillip. 
Was born January 21, 1879, and graduated in high school in the class of 
1897. Then took a literary course in our state university and gradu- 
ated in the class of 1901, and received the degree of A. B. . when he 
entered the law department and in class of 1903 took the degree of 
LL. B. , and immediately commenced the practice of his profession at 
the old home, and has succeeded to the business of his father. Was 
elected county attorney in the fall of 1904. 



114 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

THOMAS W. MEYERS 

A Seward County boy born near Gerraantovvn, August 3, 1884, on a 
farm. The father's family now reside north of Seward. 

Thomas had the misfortune to lose his mother in early childhood. 
He has the reputation of being an industrious boy of excellent habits, 
and as the years roll by will have nsore history to relate, as he loves to 
read. 

GEORGE W. MIDDAUGH 

A prominent citizen of Utica. Was born September 9, 1845, at 
Kiehsburg, Illinois. While young he migrated westward and found a 
wife in the person of Miss Lizzie Woodward of State Center, Marshall 
County, Iowa, January 25, 1878. 

They have two children, viz: Lela, now Mrs. J. Landenberger ; 
and Bertha, now Mrs. S. Goodwin. 

Mr. Middaugh came to Utica in May. 1885. He is a wide-awake 
real estate man and sells lands of his locality and the west and south. 
He also does an insurance business, having an agency with many relia- 
ble companies. He is also an auctioneer of wide repute. Is a member 
of the I. O. O. F. and the D. of R. 

JAMES MILLER 

An Ohio boy, the son of a Presbyterian preacher, born in Wood 
County, December 31, 1844. He found the trail leading westward at 
eleven and landed at St. Charles, Iowa. Here he became acquainted 
with Miss Mary A. Baird, and when James and Mary had reached the 
proper age they were married, December 31, 1880, at St. Charles, Iowa. 
But this happy event did not occur until Mr. Miller had become 
thoroughly posted in all the ways of our "wild and woolly west." 

In 18(j9 he came to the wilderness and laid the foundations of the 
present home on section 20, in "J" precinct, and here he batched it for 
many long years, waiting, we su^jpose, until he was old enough to have 
the care of a family. But at last he awakened to the fact that it was 
not good for man to be alone in the world and remembering the girl he 
had left behind him. he made some excuse to go to Iowa. He went 
and came back with his bride. Mrs. Miller was also an Ohio girl born 
in Guernsey Countj-, January 1, 1851. bat came in infancy to Iowa, 
where she grew to womanhood. They have four children, viz : William 
C. , John R., Minnie A., and Margaret A. 

Mr. Miller is a successful farmer who has always tfied to do his 
full share in this grand good county of ours. The church home of the 
family is with the M. E. people of Seward. 

HARVEY M. MILLER 

For twelve years Seward agent for the C. & N. W. railroad. Was 
born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, September 5, 1863, and struck the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 115 

western trail in 1877, aiul followed it to Dallas Count3-, Iowa. Com- 
menced work for the C. R. I. P. R. R. in 1885. Was with the 
Burlington a short time in 1887. Came to Seward as operator for the 
Northwestern people, August 3, 1887. and officed in a box car. Took 
agency at Goehner December 1. transferred to Linwood in 1890, and 
August 7, 1889, was placed in charge at Seward. 

Married August 28, 189;^, to INIiss Grace Porter, one of the teachers 
of our high school, a graduate of the state normal. A very accom- 
plished lady of high standing. They have five children, all at home: 
Chauncy M.. Harold V., Matilda M., Elmer E. and Helen E. 

Mrs. Miller was born in Missouri, but raised from her early youth 
in Nebraska. 

Mr. Miller is a Modern Woodman and in 1901 was a delegate to 
their national camp at St. Paul, Minnesota. He is also a member of 
the A. F. and A. M. He is at piesent a member of our board of educa- 
tion. A republican in politi(-s. Mr. Miller is a very suitable person 
for promotion in raih'oad work. 

W^ILLIAM W. MILLER 

One of the early settlers In the Amish settlement in west "O" 
town. Was born in Holmes County, Ohio, February 9, 1861. His folks 
had a slight attack of western fever when William was only eight years 
old, and the great western trail led them to McLean County, Illinois, 
where they sojourned for live years when they saw the star of empire 
hovering over Nebraska and October 8, 1874, they landed on section 9, 
"O" town. When William had reached the age of twenty-one he 
began to look around for a best girl and as neighbor Stutzman had the 
one to suit him, they looked at matters just a like, and March 18,1882, 
he and Miss Kate were married at the great church of their faith in 
"O" precinct. 

They have eight children, viz : Sarah, now Mrs. A. Stutzman ; 
Joseph, John H. , Malinda, Ammon, Lovina, Gertie, and Barery E. 

Church home is with the Amish Menonites. 

WILLIAM J. MILLER 

Was an Iowa boy born in Henry County, September 8, 1876, but got 
on the Nebraska trail when five years old and landed near Milford, 
whei'e he grew up a Seward county boy. and while looking around he 
found Miss Matilda Troyer, and they made a bargain at the Amish 
church, July 20, 1899. She was born in Howard County, Indiana, 
October 25, 1878. 

They have four little ones, viz: Clara M. , Homer W. , Minnie M. , 
and Henry E. By the way, the author helped in naming the baby. 

William came to Milford in 1881. Was raised a farmer and under- 
stands his business. Church home is with the Ami.sh Menonites. 



116 lllS'l'OliY OW SKVVAIvM) COUNTY, NKHliASKA 

lIAKIMOli MlLLKIi 

Olio of the old time homoHtoadc^iH of vv(isiern "J" ])reciiict. Whh 
l)oni Mtiroh 1(5, 1H45), ainonjir t\w \Auv clay hills of Licking County, Ohio, 
and was niiwed all tho way from ()hio to NebraHka. He took to the 
\v(\steni trail in (wirly yonth and rested awhile at St. Charles, Iowa, and 
in IH72 he imrsutul his iouniey westward and land(id on the liom«fstead 
in seetion 20, ",1" i)re,einct. After hiit(-hing it, until si^'iiif" tint lolly 
of it, in IH7!). One spring morniny, A])ril 10, ho hied away to Saunders 
(bounty, and (toneluded a contract witli Miss FAUm Heac^li and Ihirjuir 
batched it no more. She was born in Kankakcu^ (!ounty, Illinois, Jan- 
nary II, IH4!». They have two children, vi/.: (I(^rtru(l(^ Clark and 
James Lauren. 

Mr. MillcM- is a successful larnier and llie family (uijoy a i)leasant 
home. He is a meinlMM' of the A. ( ). I'. VV. and his Cliurcli home is 
with the Presbyterians of Sciward. 

HON. JOHN E. McLAlN 

An Illinois boy, ))urri in ilcuderson County, November I I, \H')V}, where 
tliey had the usual exjcriences of a farmer boy in the common schools 
and vvorkiufi, just as all worthy boys do, at all kinds of faim work. 
He remaiiunl in Illinois until his removal to Seward County, in lHH(i. 
In 1877 he was married to Miss Marietta li. Taylor, a native of the old 
Keystone static They have six (^liiklren. 

The yonn^ ])eople settled on a farm just northeast of Sewai'd and have 
opened and improved a nice farm. Mr. McLain has taken a decided 
interest in i)ublic matters at his new home. For many years he has 
been master of 01iv(M- lodj^e No. ;W of the A. F. and A. M. and is also 
a member of the Woodmen of the World and the Modcun Woodmiui. 
Was for some years treasurer of his township. He is a full ficnlj^ed re- 
])ublican and his party made liim standard bearer for rejjresentative in 
the fall of ltH)2, and elected him. and his faithful committee work and 
close attention to business iiisuriMl iiis lenoniination in 1!M)I. He is a 
wide-awake, valuable citizen and has lendered valuable service to the 
countv and state. Hc^ was elected to succeed himself. 



OOV. JOHN 11 MICKFY 

Six miles west of HurliiiKon, Iowa, anion^ the brushy hills, was born 
September ;?(), IHIT), the boy that is now serving his second term as 
governor of Nebraska. He was a child of a pioneer settlement. The 
father, O. V. Mickey, settled there in \H'M'). Two years later we find 
the family in Louisa C^ounty, where John attdiidcHl tlie coinnion school, 
in tlu^ log cabin school house of that day. 

In lH(i;i he enlisted in Company D, Hth Iowa cavalry, and was w ith 
the army of east Tennessee and with Sherman at the surrender of At- 
lanta. He was also with Hood and Thomas. In August, 1H()5, he was 
mustered out and returned honit^ Then he was a student two years at 



IIIS'l'OltY Ol'' SI'lWAIM) COtlNTY, NI'lHIiASK A 117 

Mi(t W<)Hl<iy!i,ii Miii voi'Hily iil, Mmiiit, l'l<'.)iHii/i(.. l''oi' i\ tiiinr wiiM n (,<!;i.<-.li<)r. 
S()|tl<"iiil)()r 10, lH(i7, Im! iimirind Mihh Miiriiulii WcCiny, dI' I)iim MoiiioM 
(!()unly, and orir-, yciir liiU^r, on hoanl ii piiiirir! MctlioiJimc, (lio y<)iiri/< 
poojilo Hn(, HJiil for N<'hi)i,Ml<;i, iiiid liin(l(!(l in I'olk (!riun),y nnd Hclllifl on 
a h(<ini)sl,«)ii(l. Snvvanl whh liis lirHt, iidsI ol'lii-f., ror(,y iniloH diMdml,. 

In IH7;i OHCoola wan lonndml atid flic I'nl in r' /^ovi-rnor wiintfil {<> lie llio 
lirHt HCittlor on tlio town mIIc sind (lad n ;4i-nnin<- lioix' i;irc witfi W. 10. 
Kinn«!l iuid waH bfiatcn in lln; nice and Mr. Kinml raimil Die Iiomoih 
of l)(;in^ (lio i'wHt hcU I<',|- in Uie city of ()hci;oiii. Al. t lie, or^;aiii/,al ion of 
(,h(i contdy, in iHid, .Mr. MicUoy was i',\f<;\<;il IreaMnror, and Imlil I iio 
orticc, \>:i] yoaiH. In IHHO vvaH «',I(!(;t(!d nioMd)f',r of the li!^<iHlntni(! and look 
a Niadin^ |iait, in Mio woil< of that, H<!MHion, )l<^ \if\\ii:(\ cnny UieSlociun 
law ihioufrli (wliicli is not irindi Ir* }iiH crfMlit,;. 

In May, lH7i*, lio opened i\n; OHcoola ha/ik a,nd han ri-laiinid llio 
pi«)Hid(!ncy to tho \ir('M(;til tiin<!. y\t, lirHt il,H paid n\> capital wan five, 
thouHand dollai'H; now it iH tliirty h<;v(ui tliouHarid doJIarH. It liaH Ikm'JI 
a Hfjund and HiiccohHf'iil itiHtitution tliroiiKh all tho y<!arH of advc/fMit-y, an 
well aw in y«!arH of pioHjxjrily, and haH l«;nt a. Indjiin^ hand to fa,nn(!rH 
in tirnoH of financial diHti'(;HH. He, iHaHiann<'li lepidiliian alllion><h IiIh 
fatlmr waH a Douf^laMH d«!ni(H;rat. The yoii;i|4 Iowa, holdiitr voted for 
Lincoln when hut ninet<!(!n. 

Mr. .Micke^y in a nieniher of the ,\1. 10. chiji<;h, and fnv many yeaiH 
waH Hiiperirdendefd, of the Sahhath Hchofil. In church work lie haH 
taken a ^reat iiiterent and han heen a liheral helper. Hat- j^iven nni'h 
enconragC/inent to the WeHlrjyan univerHity and the .\1. 10 hoHpital at 
Omaha. Ih now jirHnident of the, hoar<l of truMtfjen of th«5 univerhity. 

Mth. Mickey died l)<!c;emher 'M, IKHtJ, hjaving Fiim five chihlnfu. 
lJ(!Cfjmber M, 1HH7, lie inarri<?d MIkh Klom (', Camj^hejl, of Norde.n, 
NebraHka, wh'i now iw the moth<!r of four children. The nine cliildreji 
are all living, five hoyH anrl four girln; Oliver F. iH cunhie.r of the Once, 
ola hank; Harlen A. of Keya Paha Of>ufd.y; Kvan S. , liin father h chjrk ; 
liertha 10., nowMrn. II. O. Smith, .Mary N. now a ntudent ; IJenJamin H. 
.JamfjH H. , Flora E.', and Novina A., at home. WaH elected l»y a gre.ut 
ly in<;n;a,sed inajoritv- in MMil. 

,IK.\:S L. .MIKKIOLSIO.N 

WaH one of the Htnrdy cliildreji of iJe.nmark that wah not Hatinfieri 
with thfi cramjjed conditioriH in the. fatherlan*! and nt tw«jn(-y h« w^nght 
for a new home beyond the rolling billown of two ocfjann, in far off 
AuHtralia. whero he remained neven ye^arn, when he heard of Nebranka 
arul rec.rossed th'j Pacific and ncaled the tn jii/d.ainH vast and lande,«l at 
Omaha July iiH, 1870, whero he, fr^und a lady bearing hin ow/i nam«i and 
hIho a native of iJenmark. Shf. jaoved to be Junt the girl he. waH lo'jk 
ing for and thr-y were marrie^d at Omaha, November ^'5,1870. 

Ml, Mikkelnen wan born March II. 18455. Mrn. -Mikkelnen wan born 
April ~), \HT,2. Thfjy hav*j eight childre.n, viz: iJorothy K., ./eriH 0'., 
Michael L. , John, Na^jma M,, Andrew ('., William T., and Annie li. 



118 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



They settled on section 10. in"E" precinct, March 10, 1871, and 
opened a farm. In 1H9G thev took up their residence in Seward. The 
church home of the family is with the Seward M. E. church. 




Lewis Moflitl 

Founder of Seward and one amon^ the early pioneers of the county, 
was born December 1, 1884 in Indiana, and married Miss May A. Thomas 
in 1854. The young people found a new home in Jasper county, Iowa, 
where they resided until their removal to Seward county. In February, 
1865, Mr. Moftitt visited this locality and was so well pleased with the 
outlook that he bought of the government the land upon which the city 
of Seward now stands and while here he also homesteaded a quai'ter of 
land on Lincoln Creek. Soon after this he sold the homestead to old 
Mr. Hartman, father of Fred ami Win. Hartman. He never moved on- 
to the homestead. 

In July, 1865, the family moved to the future town site and built 
a double log house which served the family for a home and it was open 
for all public gatherings of the community for a time. Our first Sab- 
bath school was organized at this humble home and we also had the use 
of the house for religious meetings. Mr. Mottitt w^^s our first post mas- 
ter and his home was our post ottice. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



119 



In May. 1868, Mr. Mofiitt platted 80 acres into town lots. These 
consisted of four rows of blocks beginning at Jackson avenne and ex- 
tending to the south line of the north half of the southwest quarter of 




Mrs. Lewis Moffitt 

section 21, T 11. R 3 east, making thirty-two blocks. The square was 
dedicated to the town for public uses. 

Mr. Moflfitt was quite liberal in donating lots for schools, churches, 
etc., and he was liberal with his means in defraying expenses of our 
county seat contest. Later he arranged with Mr. Cloyd and what is 
known as Cloyd's addition was made. By and by Mr. Harris became in- 
terested, and the southeast quarter of section 20 was platted, and also 
forty acres of Mr. John Roberts' homestead was brought into the cor- 
poration. Mr. Moffitt did not take such interest in the town as to 
launch out in building ventures. He built a beautiful home on ad.ia- 
cent lands and there spent a quiet life. His health had been failing 
many years. A short time before his death he and his wnfe made pro- 
vision that four hundred acres of valuable land should go to the county, 
the proceeds of sale should be used in the building of a court house that 
is to cost not less than eighty thousand dollars. In late years Mr. 
Moffitt and his wife spent much time in California, looking for health. 



120 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



They had one son, Leroy, who died in 1874. At this writing the wife 
still lives, but is a great sufferer. 

Among the public bequests were two blocks at the foot of 
Seward street for a public park. Mr. Moffitt died June 17, 1900. 




Morro\v Hospital 

Of Seward, Nebraska, opened for business under the management 
of Dr. Joseph Morrow, in March, 1902. Is a fine structure prepared to 
care for a large number of patients. Is thoroughly equipped with all 
modern appliances, hot and cold watei", electric baths, etc., all the most 
approved modern surgical appliances. X rays, Bettz hot air apparatus 
and every convenience known to the jirofession, furnace heat, electric 
light, nice brick walks leading to all parts of the city. The hospital is 
beautifully situated within a group of fine shade trees, and on a quiet 
street where patients are not annoyed by noise and confusion. 



DR. JOSEPH MORROW 

One of the live Nebraska boys in whom we take pride. Was born 
near the present town of Mvirray, Cass County, Nebraska, February 15, 
1870. Commenced his education in the common schools and took a lit- 
erary course at Cotner university He graduated from the eclectic 
medical institute at Cincinnati, Ohio, in J892, June 7th. He also took 
post graduate course in the Polyclinic institute, Chicago, and the 
Homeopathic school of Oriaficial surgery, at Chicago. 

Came to Oermantown and commenced practice June 27, 1893, where 
he married Miss Frances E. Fetterman, November 28, 1894. She was a 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 121 

Seward County girl born near Gerraantown, January 19, 1873, and was 
the daughter of Cyrus Feterman, Esq.. one of our oldest residents of the 
county. 

The doctor opened the Morrow hospital in Seward, March 16, 1902. 
The institution is rapidly growing in public favor. Dr. Morrow is a 
member of the Sons of Veterans, a Royal Highlander and a Royal 
Neighbor. This Nebraska boy is getting to the front in good shape. 

HARVEY MOLER 

Was a Hoosier born boy and came to light in Madison County. June 
19, 1847, where he remained until he enlisted in Company E, 84 Indiana 
veteran volunteers in 1864. Served one year and was discharged in 
1865. In 1868 he went to Knox County, Illinois where he married Miss 
Sally Shoemaker. She was a Knox County girl horn in 1845. They 
have four children, viz: Melvin J. . Ira. William, and Fied. They 
came to Seward County in 1888 and located near Bee. Mr. Moler is a 
farmer. 

THOMAS W. MYERS 

A Seward County boy born August 3, 1884, northeast of Seward. 
His father, Jesse W. Myers, was born in McDonough County, Illinois, 
December 21, 1853. His mother was born in Beryan County, Michigan, 
June 5, 1853, and died January 1, 1893. The old folks came to Seward 
County at an earlj' day and were among the pioneer settlers. Thomas 
has four brothers, viz: John and Joseph, twins; Edward, Jesse, also a 
baby sister that died. Thomas is a wide-awake, energetic boy and will 
make his mark in the world if we mistake not. 

WILLIAM H. MOORE 

A native of the old keystone state, where, like other boys of that 
rugged old state of stumps, stones, and everlasting hills generally, Wil- 
liam spent the first twenty years of his life chasing the cows up and 
down the stony paths, rolling stones, building stone fences, grubbing 
brush and attending school in the little red school house. He was born 
October 10, 1858, in Fayette County. The Moore family found the 
western trail in 1878, which led them to Seward, where William worked 
with an older brother at the carpenter's trade for some years, when he 
went to work with W. B. Barrett in the lumber business and some 
years later he formed a co-partnership with Mr. Barrett and bought 
the furniture store of John Kribbler, and after the death of Mr. Barrett 
Mr. Moore became sole proprietor. Mr. Moore formed the acquaintance 
of Miss Lizzie Walker of Seward, and they were married April 16, 1884, 
at Seward. She was a nati\ e of Illinois, born in 1865, and came to 
Seward when a child with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Walker. 
They now have six children, viz: Elsie, Albert, Wanda, Roy, Merle and 
Nellie. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 123 

Ml". Moore came to Seward in December, 1878. He is a member of 
the A. O. U. W. Church home is with the Congiegationalists. Mr. 
Moore erected a beautiful home on sixth street in the summer of 1904. 
He is among the foremost of our wide-awake business men. 

L. C. MOORE 

Was a New York boy. born in Yates County, September 1, 1861. 
Went to Michigan in childhood and was raised by an older sister. 
Came to Ohiowa, Nebraska, in 1884, and later to Lawrence, and to 
Utica in 1889. October 18, 1893, was married to Miss Bercie Hum- 
phrey, a Seward born girl born November 11, 1874. She was educated 
in the Seward high school and Seward Commercial college. The young 
couple moved to Shenandoah, Iowa, soon after the wedding, but came 
back to their first love in 1904. He is a machinist by trade. Is now 
engaged in selling heating, lighting and water systems for buildings. 
Mr. Moore is a man of energy and business ability. 

REV. WILLIAM MURPHY 

One of the most eminent and widely known clergymen in Nebraska. 
Was born among the rocky hills of Vermont in Bennington County, in 
184(). Was educated in the common schools and then took a regular 
course of study at the Holy Cross, Massachusetts and graduated in 18K9. 
Next he took a theological course at Troz, New York. Was there two 
years when he studied at the Grand Seminary at Montreal, Canada, 
and was there ordained in 1874. He then leturned to Vermont and 
commenced his ministerial labors remaining for two years. Next we 
find the young priest in France where he spent two and a half years 
pursuing studies in different vmiversities, where he graduated, and now 
more fully equipped for the great work of life he returns to his loved 
America and found a field of labor in the Peoria diocese in Illinois, 
where he got a glimpse of the rising western star in 1884 and he found 
the trail that led him to Nebraska, where he took work in the diocese 
of Omaha. Soon after this the diocese was divided and Father Murphy's 
field was in the Lincoln diocese. He has had a wide experience in his 
twenty years in Nebraska. He was at Grafton, then Lancaster five 
years and at Tecumseh five years when in 1897 he was transferred to 
Seward where he is in charge of the Seward and Ulysses missions. 

Father Murphy is a very popular man not only with his own people 
but with entire community. Unfortunately for the Catholic church of 
Nebraska, some trouble has sprung up between the Bishop of this 
diocese and Father Murphy in regard to church policy that led to 
almost unbounded litigation and the state courts have been called to 
act in the matter. Father Murphy is a broad minded, scholarly gen- 
tleman. His influence for good is not confined to the boundaries of his 
great church. In moral reforms he is a giant and wherever good can 
be accomplished for his community his voice and his pen are ready. 



124 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

He possesses one of the largest libraries in our state, with rare books 
from the pens of master minds of all ages and in many languages. 

We recognize in this high minded Christian scholar and teacher a 
true benefactor of the race, and Se.vvard may well feel proud to number 
him among our citizens. 

JUDGE THEOPHILUS L. NORVAL 

Had his birthplace on a farm in Fulton County, Illinois, August 
26, 1847. The lad had his early training grubbing brush, feeding pigs, 
and other general farm work of that new country. He attended the 
common schools in the log cabins of that day until in his teens, when 
he was permitted to attend Abingdon College for a number of years. 
At twenty, while teaching in the country schools, he commenced read- 
ing such lavv books as were within reach. He entered the law depart- 
ment of the university of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he graduated 
in 1871 with honors and received his degree and was admitted to the 
practice in all the courts of Michigan, but having Nebraska on the 
brain, he did no look for further honors in Michigan. He returned to 
his old home and taught school a year and with his earnings purchased 
a law library. In 1872, with his brother, he came to Seward where 
they secured a lot, built a little frame office, stuck up their shingle and 
waited for clients, but in the meantime they helped in the harvest 
fields to keep a supply of postage money and pay board bills. By care- 
ful study and patient work, with proper attention to the interest of 
clients, business began to come their way. Mr. Norval found it con- 
venient to return to Illinois all of a sudden and one day in the winter 
of 1875 he returned with his prize. Miss Ella Godfry, whom he married 
February 5th. 

To this happy couple were born two children : Winnie, born Febru- 
ary 16, 1878, and Merle, born May H). 1888. Merle died when young. 

Tilr. Norval rose rapidly in the esteem of the people and was recog- 
nized. So(m after he came to this sate he was elected memlier of the 
town council. As the years came on the firm were engaged in al)Out 
all the more important cases upon the docket of the county, such 
as the Clough murder trial, Midland railroad bond case, the Lin- 
coln and Northwestern railroad bond injunction case, the Casler and 
Patrick murder cases, the Jones tax case and many others.. Was 
honored as councilman and Mayor of our city, also as city clerk. Was 
elected state senator in 1878. In the spring of 1883 there was a vacancy 
in the judgeship of the then 5th judicial district and Governor Dawes 
appointed Mr. Norval to fill the place. In the following fall he was 
nominated by the judicial convention at Aurora by acclamation (repub- 
lican convention) to be his own successor, and was elected over Judge 
M. A. Mills by a large majority, receiving over a thousand majority in 
Seward County. Was again elected in 1887 by largely increased majori- 
ties, getting every vote in Seward County and all but three in Polk 
County. In 1889 he was elected judge of the supreme court and was 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



125 



re-elected in 1895, and has served the state in that capacity for twelve 
years with much credit. His opinions handed down are considered by 
the bar of Nebraska and other states as masterpieces for clearness and 
lucidity. In 1904 he was elected presidential elector for NeV)raska. The 
judge and his noble and intelligent wife are members of the M. E. 
Church at Seward. He is a member of the A. F. and A. M., also of 
the A. O. U. W. Has been for many years a leading spirit in the 
councils of the republican party. 

Has for some years been much interested in breeding fine poultry, 
in fact has already attained a national reputation in that line of busi- 
ness. He now owns one of the finest collections of thoroughbred fowls 
to be found in the entire western states. 

Judge Norval and wife have one of the most pleasant homes to be 
found in Nebraska. 




Residence of Hon. R. S. Nerval 



HON. R. S. NORVAL 

Who today takes rank among the most able advocates at the 
Nebraska bar, had his birthplace at Midway, now London Mills, in 
Fulton County, Illinois, in 1849, where the lad worked on his father's 
farm and received his first schooling in the log school houses of that 



126 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

new country, but soon outgrew those primitive schools and while in 
his teens commenced a regular course of study at Heding College at 
Abingdon, but did not graduate. He taught several years in the country 
schools in the home neighborhood. Later he took a regular course in 
the law department at the university of Michigan, where he and his 
older brother, T. L. Norval, graduated in the class of 1871, with honors, 
receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. In the spring of 1872 the 
brothers settled in Seward and to say that they have succeeded, hardly 
tells the story. He has made much more than an ordinary success, 
gaining a very large practice, accumulating an ample fortune, securing 
a splendid wife and raising a large family, all in thirty two short 
years. 

Was married to his old neighbor's girl. Miss Martha A. Gray, in 
1873. To them were born ten children, six of whom yet live. Three 
died while very young. Their names are as follows: Eva M., now Mrs. 
Bert Langworthy, of Buffalo. Wyoming; Oliver Gray, also of Buffalo, 
Wyoming; Ethel, Cloyd, deceased; Leona, Richard and Margaret. 

Mr. Norval is a strong republican and takes great interest in the 
success of the party and has often served as state central committeeman. 
Served one term as state senator from Seward and Butler counties. Mr. 
Norval was a delegate at large to the national republican convention of 
1888, and member of the notification committee to notify Harrison and 
Morton of their election. 

ISAAC DENVER NEIHARDT 

Uncle Ike, as his friends universally call him, was ))orn in Williams 
County, Ohio, January 5, 1837. His parents moved to St. Joseph 
County, Indiana, when Isaac was a lad of seven. Was so unfortunate 
as to lose his mother at ten, and from that sad day he had to shift for 
himself. Few can realize what that means to a boy in a wilderness 
country such as that was. By determined energy the lad secured edu- 
cation sulticient so that he returned to Ohio and taught school in his 
eighteenth year. Then he went to South Bend, Indiana, and studied 
law with Judge Liston. and was admitted to the Itar in 18(53, at Laporte. 
Indiana. Next we find the young man over in Illinois where, in 18()2, 
he heard the thundering echoes of war and enlisted in Company F, 7(Jth 
Illinois volunteer infantry. He served as sargeant till November, 1803, 
when he was promoted to a lieutenancy and in January, 18(d5, was com- 
missioned captain. Was in the battles of Hatchie Run. Black River 
bridge, Champion Hill, Raymond, and at the siege of Vicksburg in 
both charges, where it was like "walking into the javvs of death into 
the mouth of hell." Was wounded at Cross Bayou, Louisiana, August 
5, 1804. Was mustered out of service in April, 1806. He made his 
home in Arkansas till his removal to Seward County in 1871. Became 
quite prominent in political struggles of that state during the stormy 
days of reconstruction and came within one vote of being elected to 
congress on the republican ticket. He settled on a homestead in "J" 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



127 



precinct in 1S71. Was twice elected county sheriff and served eight 
years as .justice of the peace and several terms as Police Judge in 
Seward. Has for many years been connected with the hotel business 
and in 1899 built the Nome, hotel which he and his good wife still 
manage. 




Isaac D. Neihardt 

Mr. Neihardt found his wife. Miss Kate Rodgers, and was married 
at Essex, Indiana, January 3, 1858. 

They have raised three children, one son and two daughters : 
Schuyler C. , who died in Seward at the age of four and a half years; 
Mary C. , now Mrs. J. A. Divan; and Emma A., yet at home. 

Miss Emma was for many years a prominent teacher in our jniblic 
schools. 

The writer has the privilege of seeing a letter from Colonel H. A. 
McCalep, with whom Captain Neihardt served in the (ith United States 
heavy artillery, wherein the Colonel speaks of the young captain in 



128 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



the highest terms, commending him for bravery and intrepid daring in 
passing the rebel batteries at Greenville. Mississippi and Columbia, 
Arkansas. This last was a recommendation for his promotion to 
Major in the 7Uth infantry. 




Hon. John McLain 
(See page 116) 



EZRA J. newto:n 

Born in Warren County, Illinois. January 29, 18G0. and spent 
twelve yeais wading sloughs among the polywogs of that region, and in 
the common schools of the time. He roamed around till he found the 
right place in 1872, when he located in "I" precinct near Pleasant 
Dale, and where in 1882, September 27th, he closed a bargain with Miss 
Nettie L. Her. They were married at Milford. She was a Nebraska 
girl, born near Syracuse in 186:1 Two children were born to them, 
Lloyd A., died at seven years; and Gertrude A. 

Mr. Newton has for eight years been postmaster at Pleasant Dale. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 129 

Commenced in the grain and stock trade with Nebraska and Iowa Grain 
Company. Worked for Thomas Lowry twelve years as manager. He 
is a live, all-around citizen, full of life and busine.ss. He is a Knight's 
Templer in the good old Ma.sonic fraternity and also a Shrinner. Good 
for Ezra. 

ELISHA H NOXON 

A New York boy, born in Saratoga County, April 4, 1831. At 
twenty-two he went to New York city and clerked in a dry goods store 
for several years, then went to Champaign County, Illinois, in 1857. 
Went to Rhode Island in 1868 but had a longing for the west and 
with our help he found the trail and reached Nebraska, footsore and 
weary, in 1869, and located on a homestead in "B " precinct. 

May 26, 1874, he went to Lee County, Iowa, and captured Miss 
Josephine A. Skinner. She was born in that county, October 28, 1853. 
They have twelve children, viz: Alfred \V. , Leonora, now Mrs. W. A. 
Montgomery ; James T., Josephine I., now Mrs. R. T. Stone; Delia, 
George E. , William B. , Calvin, Bertha, Lena and Rilla. 

Mr. Noxon has been post master at Bee for many years. He home- 
steaded on section 28. 

SHIELDS NUNEMAKER 

Was born among the rocky hills at Liberty Mills, Pennsylvania, 
November 7, 1848. Found the way to Illinois at seven and followed the 
trail to Seward in 1878, where he found his best girl and married Miss 
Ida A. Dewing, May 14, 1879. She was born at Elkhorn, Wisconsin, 
February 12, 1849. They have six children, viz: Ida B.,now a teiacher; 
Samuel A., deceased; Millie J., teacher; Frederick, deceased; Zoe R. , 
deceased ; and Ruth D. at home. 

Mr. Nunemaker is a miller by trade. Church home of the family 
is Presbyterian. 

JOHN Q. OHLWILER 

Is one of the very oldest if not the oldest living resident of "H" 
precinct. Was a Pennsylvanian boy, born in Erie County, November 
5, 1843. Was educated in the common schools. Enlisted at eighteen and 
Was at Fort Donaldson. In 18(54 he enlisted again in the Pennsylvania 
light artillery and transferred to the Pennsylvania 5th heavy artillery. 
After the war he came to Seward County and took his homestead in the 
fall of 1868. He and Benjamin Walker had claims adjoining and they 
built the first claim shanty so that John could sleep on one homestead 
and Ben could sleep on the other. We suppose a certain crack in the 
floor was the dividing line. That new lumber shanty was a landmark 
on the plain for some years. It was "a free hotel," of course, and it 
was the lodging place of many a weary and forlorn traveler who was 
looking for somewhere and didn't know just where to find it. Many 



130 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

times, while the storm winds were howling over the bleak prairie, John 
and Ben would have their floor all covered with beds. By and by John 
heard of a new comer who settled a little to the south, and of course he 
made a friendly call at the new home of Uncle John Luft and he got 
sight of Margaret, and he had occasion to call frequently and Margaret 
and John called on the preacher, March 30, 1872. and since that long 
time ago we have known Margaret as Mrs. Ohlwiler. Mrs. Ohlwiler 
was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, July 4, 1853, and came to Seward 
County when seventeen. 

Three children were born to them : Edith E. , now Mrs. George 
Ringle ; Nellie, now Mrs. W., Rusnogle ; and Berdella M., who died 
when a young child. Mr. and Mrs. Ohlwiler are honored members of 
the Congregational church and he is also a member of the Modern 
Woodmen of America. A very intelligent and worthy citizen who 
helped nobly in laying the firm foundations of our great common- 
wealth. 



LOUIS E. OST 

For fifteen years the efticient agent of the B. M. R. R. Company at 
Seward. Was born at Spelburne Falls, Massachusetts, September 14, 
1860, and was educated at Arms academy in his native state. When 
twenty years old he heard the western bee buzzing in his hat and he 
found the western trail and first landed at St. Louis, but did not like 
the atmosphere so in 1881 we find him at Beatrice, Nebraska, where in 
1882 he took a position with the B. M. people in the same old shed that 
graces that city. Was in charge of Seward station for two years 
when he excused himself and was in the grain and stock trade for six 
years. In 1889 he again commenced with the B. M. people and man- 
aged the station at Bellwood and was transferred to Seward in 1891, 
where he seems to be right at home. July 4, 1885. he took a prominent 
part in the grandest celebration of his life at Tecumseh, Nebraska, and 
another prominent party in that celebration was u young New York lady. 
Miss Mary Mook. Under the starry folds of old glory they united their 
fortunes. Mrs. Ost was born March 17, 1866. They have five children : 
Percy E. , Mabel K.. Carl D., Lester E., and Irene. Mr. Ost is a 
prominent member of the A. O. U. W. and of the Knights of Pythias. 
Is president of the Seward commercial club. Has lieen for five years a 
member of the city council. Took a leading part in securing the elec- 
tric plant. Mr. Ost is a thoroughly wide-awake and enterprising citizen 
and we shall look forward to the time when the company that he has 
served so long and so well shall say, "Come up higher. " 

ORSON OLMSTEAD 

Was one of the pioneer settlers in the hamlet of Seward. Came 
here August 3, 1870. He was born May 26, 1806, at east Hartfordr 
Conneticut, but moved to Walesville, New York, in childhood and there 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



131 





132 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

grew to nmnhood. April 14, 1838, he married Miss Paulina D. Grant at 
Stillville, New York. She was born February 21, 1814, at German Falls, 
New York. They were the parents of seven children, viz: Lettia G. 
Humphrey, William T., Sophia S. Hutchinson, Caroline C. Ti'essler, 
Louisa M., died July 30, 1868; O. Keilog and Ada P. 

Mr. Olnistead and his good wife died within five days of each 
other. Her death occurred December 20, 1893, and his on December 31, 
1893. Full of years and good works the good old people were laid to 
rest side by side after walking hand in hand over fifty-five years. 

CHARLES H. OXLEY 

One of the enterprising merchants of Pleasant Dale. Was born in 
Linn County, Iowa, April 19, 1860. Spent his boyhood in Henry County, 
Iowa, and came to the neighborhood of Pleasant Dale in 1884, where he 
woi'ked in the first store in the village. 

In 1893, December 14, he and Miss Lena Schnoor made a match. 
She was a Missouri girl that came to Seward County in childhood. 
Born in St. Charles County, October 12, 187(1 They have two children 
living. Homer C. and Maurice J. One died in infancy. Mr. Oxley in 
a member /)f the I. O. O. F. , the Modern Woodmen and the Maccabees. 
He is a wide-awake business man and helps to make his village what it 
should be, an up to-date town. 

FRED M. PARKS . 

Was an Illinois boy born in Lee County in 1849, September 22, and 
there grew to manhood, when he took the western ti'ail and landed in 
Guthrie County, Iowa, where he wooed and won the hand and heait of 
Miss Maria Sheely in 1871. Mrs. Parks was born in Vermillion County, 
Indiana, in 1849 and came with her parents in 1855 to Iowa. To them 
were born three children : Mabel died when four years old; a little son 
who died in early infancy; Miss Iva, at home. 

The family came to Seward in 1887 and Mr. Parks engaged in the 
coal trade for a time with General True. For fifteen years he has been 
in the feed and poultry trade. He made a new departure in the poultry 
trade in that he commenced buying by weight and was the first to do so 
in Nebraska. His business has steadily grown until it has become one 
of the important industries of our city. 

Mr. and Mrs. Parks are members of the M.E. church and he is a Mod- 
ern Woodman. Mrs. Parks is a charter member of the Ben Hur order 
and is also a member of the Royal Neighbors of America. She has 
been chancellor of the Royal Neighbors for four years. 

DAVID B. PALMER 

A prominent stock dealer and feeder. Came to Seward County in 
1878 and settleid on a farm at the Oak Groves in the northeast portion 
of the county, but in 1881 bought the present home where he has hand- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 133 

led stock on a large scale ever since. His business ranges from twenty 
to thirty thousand dollars ])er year for the last ten years. Mr. Palmer 
was born in Lake County, in 1846, November 24th. He was educated 
in the common schools of his native town and grew up as a farmer boy 
and at an early age began handling stock as feeder and shipper and as 
time wore on he began to pine for a wider field, which he found on our 
boundless prairies. Married Miss Eva Wyman at the old home in 1872. 
and to them were born Gay, yet at home; Frances, now Mrs. Fred 
Babson ; and Neva, yet with her parents. Mrs. Palmer was born at 
Madison Ohio, August 6, 1883. Her ancestors came to the United 
States in 1(329 and settled in Connecticut. Mrs. Palmer is eligible to a 
place among the Daughters of the Revolution. 

They have a beautiful home in the country four miles northeast 
of the city, with orchards, meadows and luxuriant fields, with great 
herds of stock. Mr. and Mrs. Palmer are very kind neighbois but 
wide-awake and full of business. 

MARSHALL B. PALMER 

Came to the Oak (xrove settlement in tlie noitheast part of the 
county in 1878, where he opened a farm. He soon became interested in 
the feeding of stock and six years later he moved to German- 
town where he has fed many thousands of cattle and hogs and has in a 
great measure helped the farmers to a large market for stock and grain. 
Mr. Palmer was born in Lake County, Ohio, May 1, 1852. He pursued 
the same line of business in Ohio. 

Married Miss Alice Payne in February, 1878. They have three 
children: Jessie, now Mrs. George Welch; Grace, now Mrs. Delbert 
Lyons ; and Ivy, yet at home. 

Mrs. Palmer died in 1888 and Mr. Palmer married Miss Hattie 
Warner two years later. Two children were born to them : Gertrude 
and Cullen Marshall. Mr. Palmer is now serving the fourth year as 
county supervisor for ''A, " "H" and"G' precincts. Mr. Palmer is 
a wide-awake business man and always has a hand in public enterprises. 
He is now much interested in the National Live-stock Growers,' Pro- 
ducers,' Feeders' and Shippers' Association. He is its president. He 
has a nice home at Germantown. 

GEORGE L. PETRI 

Was another of those bright boys such as spring up in Seward 
County. He was born on a farm near Germantown, March 10, 1871. 
George was educated at the common school and on the farm doing his 
full share of the work. But George had business ability of a high 
order, as his present very responsible position would indicate. Some- 
how he got track of an Illinois girl and straightway went over there 
and claimed Miss Celia Heitman as his bride, September 1. 18S8. 

They have three little folks, viz : Arthur, Frieda, and Alfred. 



134 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Mrs. Petri was born January 16,1875. Thej' are members of the Luth- 
eran church. Mr. Petri has for three years been the efficient manager 
of the Germantown creamery. 

HENRY PETRI 

One of our full-fledged Seward County boys born July 24. 1869, on the 
old farm in "H" precinct. There he grew up was educated and learned 
the farmer's trade and April 12, 1894, he married Miss Doris Shrader at 
Seward. Slie was a German girl, born June 11. 1873, and came to 
Seward Coanty in early youth. They have five childien, viz: Elsie, 
George, Paul, Alma and Edwin. 

The old homestead where Mr. Petri was born is on section 18, in 
"H" town. The present home is in "K" precinct. He is a farmer. 
Church is with the Lutherans at Seward. 

JOHN C. PETRI 

Is a Seward County boy through and through, born in "H" pre- 
cinct, April 20, 1873, and has all his life lived on the same section, 
where he learned to be a farmer and sticks close to the text. January 
28, 1902, he found his be.st girl and married Miss Anna G. Meyer at 
Wilber, Nebraska. She was a German girl, born in the fatherland, 
March 12, 1875, and came to Nebraska in her early youth. Their home 
is near Germantown. The church home is with the German Lutheran 
Zions congregation at Germantown. 

BENJAMIN F. PERRY 

Born in the southland among the rocky hills of old Kentucky in 
Carder County, March 4, 1841. When a youth of fourteen he migrated 
to Clinton County. Iowa, and remained there until married to Miss 
Adaline Dickensen. August 9, 1862. She was born in Ohio, September 
4, 1848. Five children came of this union, viz: Scott, Paulina M., now 
Mrs. C. Brockway; F.lvirda, now Mrs. R. Jackson; May, now Mrs. V. 
A. Briggs and Addie, now Mrs. E. Kinnett. 

Mrs. Perry died at Utica, November 11, 1898. 

Mr. Perry enlisted in Company F. , 31st Iowa Volunteer Infantry, 
was at Arkansas Post, Chickasaw Bayou, Vicksburg, was laid up for 
repairs in Memphis hospital and discharged July 9, 1865. Came to 
Sewaid County in 1873 and located on section 7, "K" precinct, but now 
lives in Tamora. Mr. Perry has seen all sides of pioneer life. 

SAMUEL PENCE 

Among the wild mountains of old Pennsylvania in Fulton County, 
Samuel was l)orn January 4, 1842, but he took the trail for the west 
when nine years old and landed in Rock Island County, Illinois, where 
he remained till 1868, when he found the right place and took a home- 
stead in "F" precinct. He found his best girl and was married to 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 135 

Miss Emma Anderson at Seward. February 6, 1878. She was a Keystone 
state girl, born in Fulton County , May 30, 1852. 

They have three children, viz: Alice V.. now Mrs. H. Deane ; 
Agnes J., and Edna R. Mr. Pence has lived in Seward for many years. 
He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and the A. O. U. W. 

DR. CHARLES O. PETTY 

This young man is essentially a Nebraska product, as he came to 
Friend vi'hen a lad of fourteen. He was born at Wharton, Ohio, in 
1871, December 4th. Was educated in the high school at Friend. 
Studied medicine at Denver, Colorado, after a ten year occupation as 
pharmacist which was of great help in his chosen profession. He grad- 
uated in the class of 1900 and located at Beaver Crossing, in 1901. The 
Doctor was assistant chemist at Gross Medical College, his alma mater. 

Married in 1900 to Miss Anna H. Wade, of Denver. They have one 
little son, Odell V. Dr. Petty is secretary of the Seward County Medi- 
cal Society, is a member of the State Medical Society, also of the 
American Medical Society. Is medical examiner for the A. O. Q. W., 
the Royal Highlanders, also for the Aetna Life and the New York 
Mutual Life companies. Dr. Petty is what we may justly call a grow- 
ing young doctor. Mrs. Petty was born in 1874, December 5, at St. 
Joseph, Missouri. 

JAMES A. PETTY 

Was born in Wyandotte County, Ohio, June 20, 1847. Married May 
3, 1868, to Miss Louisa Passett. This young lady was born in Germany 
at Frankfort on the Rhine. They came to Friend. Nebraska, in 1885. 

Five chidren came to their home, viz: Nina, now Mrs. F. W. 
Wright; Charles O. . William R. . Lottie, now Mrs. L. McCoy; and Lulu, 
yet at home. 

Mr. Petty enlisted in Company I, 49th Ohio infantry in the 4th 
corps, under General Thomas, and of course had plenty of fighting to 
do. Was wounded at Atlanta but .stuck to the post of duty. 

Came to Beaver Crossing in 1892. Is a contractor and builder and 
has constructed over forty buildings in the village. He is a past grand 
in the I. O. O. F. and also district deputy. Is a member of the G. A. 
R. Is a member of the village board and was instrumental in enlarging 
the corporate boundaries of Beaver Crossing. 

JOSEPH H. PERKINSON 
Was a Nebraska boy, having come to Platte County when three 
years old. Was born near Dixon, Illinois, September 24, 1873. Was 
educated in our Nebraska schools and grew to manhood among our boys 
and girls. Came to Milford in 1897. Is engaged in the land and insur- 
ance business and seems to enjoy a good trade. His church relation is 
■with the Catholics. He belongs to the Royal Highlanders. 



136 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

FREDERICK W. PETSCH 

Had the honor of being born in Wisconsin bnt somehow while an 
infant he got on the wrong trail, or rather, he got on the wrong end of 
the trail and landed in Indiana, where he grew to manhood, when he 
discovered the mistake So in 1S77 he looked for the trail that led to 
Seward County. Fred was l)orn November \2, 1857, and was never 
happy till he had fonnd that Wisconsin girl who had the grit to come 
west, Miss Hannah M. Morefield Fred and Hannah looked at mat- 
ters about alike so they went over to Justice E.Kinney's, near old Cam- 
den, and closed a good bargain for each of them, November 21, 1883. 
She was born in Wollvvorth County, December 7. 1866. They have five 
children, viz: Grace M., Frederick T., Albeit R., Everett C, and 
Arthur M. 

Mr. Petsch came to the county February 22, 1877, and made his 
home at first on section 1, "O" precinct, but three years later he took 
land in section 21, in "P" precinct, where he has resided nearly 
twenty- five years. He is an exiiert in the red hog business and owns a 
large herd of thoroughbred Durocs. Mr. Petsch's aged parents live 
on the adjoining land. 

Fred has been a farmer all his life and is making a success of it. 
And his good wife is making a success of breeding Plymouth Rock 
chickens. Their herd of red pigs and flock of chicks are worth a long 
trip to look at. Mr. Petsch is a member of the M. W. A. 

MELVIN S. PITT 

Was a son of the couple that first graced the marriage altar in 
Seward Count}\ That marriage is noted elsewhere in these pages. 

Melvin was born near Ruby, May 13. 1869. He is a farmer boy, 
carrying on the farm of Grandmother Long, near Ruby. Melvin .seems 
to admire single bles.sedness, else he can't find the right girl. 

WILLIAM ORLANDO PIERCE 

One of the oldest residents of Nebraska. Was born in Randolph 
County, Indiana, May 8th, 1828, where he spent his boyhood days. 

Was married December 31. 1849, to Miss E. S. Poor. She was born 
in Goosland County, Virginia, June 21, 1832. The young people came 
west in 1851 and settled in the wilderness of Mahaska County, Iowa, but 
hardly satisfied and after five years, or in 1856, they followed the west- 
ern trail and crossed the great river and settled in Sarpy County, Ne- 
braska. In 1868 they took a homestead just east of the embryo citv of 
Seward. Mr. Pierce built the third residence in the little town .iust 
east of Callender's coal yard. 

Mr. and Mrs. Pierce raised eleven children, viz: Emely J., George 
W., Henry F.. Adelia.Mary E. ,Lydia I. .Nettie M., Thomas E. .Minnie 
L. and Charles W. Mr. Pierce died in 1900 at Seward. Mrs. Pierce 
resides at Seward. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



137 





138 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

WILLARD W. PIERCE 

One of the first settlers in "N" precinct, where he located on section 
18, as a homesteader in 1869. Was born away up in Oswego County, New 
York, where they raise icebergs in winter and rocks and blackberries 
in summer. Willard was born September 2, 1845, and learned how to 
navigate stone boats and do all other kinds of work that the York state 
farmer boy usually does. He did not get a gli mpse of the western star 
imtil he heard Greeley's command, "Go west, young man," then he 
obeyed orders and at twenty-five he struck the trail for the west. He 
sojourned in Illinois une vear. However, he hunted up one of those 
good. New York girls, Miss Sarah Huffman, and was married September 
10. 1867, in Wayne County, New York. 

She was a Cauga girl, born January 7, 1851. Mr. Pierce was a 
soldier. He enlisted in the 81st New York infantry but was not able to 
pass examination. But he was the kind of lad that was determined to 
have a hand in the game so he enlisted in the- 9th New York heavy 
aitillery and got several sniffs of burnt iwwder. Was wounded at Cedar 
Creek. Virginia, but he hung to the willows till the end of the war. 

Mr. and Mrs. Pierce had four children as follows: Ernest W. , 
Emmet M. F. , who was killed October 9. 1874, by the collapse of a 
neighbor's granary; Lela N., now Mrs. Ben Nerval, and Maud A. 

Mr. Pierce moved to Seward in 1886 and took charge of the Com- 
meicial House soon after and managed it successfully many years. He 
is now trying to take life easy at the cosy home in the north part of 
the city and finds pleasant pastime with his pigs and poultry. The 
family church home is with the M. E. people. 

EDWIN A. POLLEY 

June 26, 1849, in Hardin County, Ohio, was born the lad that de- 
veloped into the popular Seward jeweler, businessman, and post master. 
He went to Monmouth, Illinois, when quite young, in 1859, where he 
was educated, being a classmate of the distinguished civil engineer, J. 
Finley Wallace, now chief engineer of the Isthmian canal. Moved on 
west like most wide-awake boys do, to Des Moines, Iowa, where he 
learned his trade and where he also made the best trade of his life in 
securing a wife. Was married to Miss Harriet Harrison in 1872, and to 
their union were born two children. Maud R, now Mrs. J. E. Morris, 
of Chicago, Illinois, and Edwin H. , now a business man of Seward. 

Mr. and Mrs. Polley came to Seward, February 1, 1873, where he 
opened a jewelry store in the town and has managed to keep it open 
now thirty-one years and we believe the thing impi'oves with age. 

Under the Harrison administration he was apnointed post master 
of the city and in his term of four years everything ran smoothly and 
ovej-ybody was well satisfied. 

Mrs. Polley was born at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1850 but her par- 
ents moved to Des Moines when she was a child. She was educated in 
the city schools. Mrs. Polley has a leading part in all matters of social 
culture and advancement. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 139 

Mr. Polley is a member of the K. P. Was for several years grand 
receiver of the A.. O. U. \V. Mr. Polley is a public spirited citizen, 
always ready to lend a helping hand in matters of public enterprise. 
A good jovial fellow with all an enjoys the friendship of a wide circle 
of friends He is a stalwart republican and is ever readv to give his 
reasons for his faith. He attends strictly to business and is fairly 
successful. 

, DR. JEFFERSON T. POTTER 

Another New York state boy who graduated first in steering a stone 
boat on the old farm. (This was one necessary part of a New York 
boy's education. ) Was born in Courtland County, February 2, 1850. 
Was educated at Courtland academy and the state normal, whei*e he 
commenced teaching in the same school and later in various .schools in 
New York, and finally he found the western trail and landed in Illinois 
and taught in Logan and in Sangamon Counties. Now he changes his 
tactics and we find the young man at Syracuse in the university where 
he graduated with honors in the medical college and stuck out his shingle 
at Port Jarvis, New York, where he practiced for eight years. Was 
examining surgeon for the government and also surgeon for the Erie 
railroad. Later was special United States pension examiner for two 
years. Next he practiced at Mount Hope, Kansas, for eleven years, 
when he found the right place at Seward, and there he is contented. 

The doctor married Miss May Topping June 28, 1888, at Sedgwick. 
Kansas. This lady is a Daughter of the Revolution, and member of 
the order of the Eastern Star. She was born at Morrison, Illinois, 
December 9, 18fi8. 

They have one daughter, Helen L.. born in Oklahoma, July 1, 
1894. 

The doctor came to Seward in December, 1895. He is an old time 
member of the A. F. andi^. M. , the Maccabees, the Ben Hur, and 
Woodmen of the World. Church home of the family is with the Con- 
gregationalists. 

REV. JOSEPH H. PRESSON, D. D. 

Ts certainly one of the oldest ministers in Nebraska who began his 
ministerial labors in our state. Was born in Warren Count}', Ohio, in 
1840. He came of pioneer ministerial stock. His father, a Methodist 
preacher, moved to Rushville, Illinois, when Joseph was six years old 
and country was a wilderness. Joseph says he was just a preachers 
boy and nothing strange occurred in his childhood. He went to the 
country school and played hookey just like other boys. The year he 
was twentj-one the guns of Fort Sumpter thundered and Joseph heard 
and made haste to take part. He served under General Sherman in the 
famous 15th army corps and participated in all the conflicts and 
marches until after the capture of Atlanta, and was in the battles of 
Shiloh, Shelby Depot, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Vicksburg, 



140 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

May 19. and 22nd, 1863, and the siege ending July 4, 18(53, Jackson, 
Mississippi, Amsterdam Ford, Mission Ridge, Kenesaw and Atlanta, 
and went through all without a scratch although he had many close 
calls. Was mustered out October 31), 18(54, at Chattanooga, and within 
the next sixty days he found the western trail and followed it to 
Nebraska and made Tecuraseh his home for six years where he was 
twice elected county clerk and served four years. In Johnson County 
he had the honor of nailing the first lath on a wall in that new county. 

Was converted and at once commenced his ministerial career in 1866. 
Was licensed and began at once to work for the Master. In 1871 he 
joined the Nebraska conference and was appointed junior preacher at 
Tecumseh, under Rev. A. L. Folden. Later he was sent to Plattsmouth, 
to 18th street church at Oinahn, to Nebraska City, Pawnee City, then 
by special request of the otticial board was sent to his old home at Te- 
cumseh. After this, while at Tecumseh his health failed and he was 
compelled to seek secular employment for five years although retaining 
his membership in the conference. In 1886 he returned to the work of 
the ministry and was sent to Seward where he labored for three years 
with great success and to the entire satisfaction of the church and peo- 
ple. Next we find him at Peru, the seat of the Normal school. From 
there he was sent to Table Rock, thence to Pawnee City for the second 
time where he served three years. During those years the church 
doubled its membership, and he left it one of the best appointments in 
the conference. From there he was sent to Stromsburg and served there 
four years, Then went to Milford where he has been four years as pas- 
tor and has been invited to remain another year. 

Dr. Presson has always been a strong republican. And says he never 
could see anv sutficient reason for belonging to any other political 
party. He has voted for every governor of the state, except three, and 
those three all good men though were not of his party. Dr. Presson 
was elected chaplain of the House of Representatives for the legislature 
of 11(01 and 1902, and chaplain of the Senate for 1904 and 1905. Was 
nominated by his party caucus both times on first ballot over all com- 
petitois thus showing the high esteem in which he was held by the re- 
publicans in the state. Dr. Presson is a man of marked ability as a 
public speaker and scarcely ever fails to have large and appreciative 
audiences; is frecjuently called to different parts of our state to deliver 
addresses on different subjects. He takes much interest in the work of 
the gra'nd army and is very popular with the old soldiers. Re now 
preaches every alternate Sunday afternoon at the soldier's home in 
Milford. 

Mr. Presson is a broad minded intelligent man and is unusually apt 
in his illustrations. He is not only an able preacher but is a ready and 
forcelul speaker on the platform. He is benevolent. No tramp goes 
from his door hungry. Was married in the year 1866. Three sons were 
born. The eldest, Cloyd E, , is now living in Sail Francisco and is en- 
gaged as postal railway clerk and is one of the the brightest men in 
the service. He was for a time chief clerk at Honolulu and has been 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 141 

promoted from time to time. George Harrison, the second son is now 
one of the leading merchants in Stromsburg, Nebraska. The third 
son, Clark Woodman, was accidentally killed at the age of twenty-two. 
He was at the time clerk in the Farmer's and Merchants' bank at 
Stromsburg. He was a bright and happy young man and a universal 
favorite where he was known. 

Mr. Presson was born of a stalwart family of Maine yankees. His 
great grandfather Merrill lived to be over one hundred, His great 
grandmother Merrill lived to be ninety-nine years old. His grand- 
father and mother Presson lived to the age of eighty-five. His father 
and mother are still living; aged eighty-nine and eighty-six and are in 
possession of all their faculties. They are living and keeping house in 
Auburn at the present time. 

ALBERT PROCKNOW 

Was a German boy born April 25, 1862, and found his way to this 
land of better promise in 1881. Like a sensible boy which he was he 
came straight to Seward County and settled in "J" town near Ruby. 
Where he found a prize in the person of Therese Bernecker and married 
April 27, 1887. She was born in Grant County, Wiscon.sin, June 9, 18fi7. 

They have eight children, viz: Oscar R., Louisa F. , Hulda M., 
Minnie D. , Herman W., Erma, now dead; Elsa and Albert. The 
Lutheran church is the family church home. Mr. Procknow is a well 
to do farmer. 

Grandfather Rialdolph Bernecker, Mrs Procknow 's father, makes his 
home with the family. He is now eighty-two years old. He came 
with his young family from the Fatherland to Wisconsin in 1860. The 
old gentleman is hale and hearty, enjoying life the best he can. 

ANTON PLUMPER 

A Prussian by birth, but an American by practice. Was born 
March 3, 1888, and made his way across the ocean when a young man 
of twenty-two and landed at Crescent City in June, 1860. Came to 
Seward in 18»2, March 1st and here found his best girl and married 
Miss Effie Gruss. She was born in Christian County, Illinois in 1858. 

They have four children, viz: Lotta, now Mrs. Aug. Rurup; Wm. 
McKinley and Lillie C. 

Mr. Plumper got to this country in time to take a hand in the great 
war and enlisted in the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry and smelled burnt pow- 
der at Batonrouche, Mobile and Vicksburg and at other places. 

He located in section 1, "F" town. Is a farmer. Belongs to the 
G. A. R. Church home is with the Catholics. 

PETER REDIGER 

A young business man of prominence in Milford, who has grown 
from early childhood upon our own prairies. Was born May 14, 1875 in 
Woodford County, Illinois. His parents found the way to Seward 



142 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY , NEBRASKA 



County in 1879, and bought railroad land near the Amish church west 
of Milford and here Peter grew to manhood and was educated in the 
schools of the neighborhood. With the progressive and restless spirit 
of all our best young men he must go to Colorado, and try mining in 
1889. In 1900 he returned to Milford where he managed a I'estaurant 
for two years. In December, 1903, he bought an interest in the great 
mercantile establishment, where he seems right at home with a pros- 
perous and growing trade. 

January 9, 1901, he united his fortunes with Miss Lena Summer of 
Milford, who wa.s born and raised in Seward County. They have one 
child, little Frieda May. The church home of the family is with the 
Amish Menonites. 




Alexander D. Ritchie 

A pioneer on the great upland prairie between Blue River and 
Lincoln Creek in town 12, ranee 1, east of the (ith P. M. "D" town in 
Seward County, Nebraska. 

Mr. Ritchie was a prominent figure in his day in Seward County. 



History op seward county, Nebraska 



143 



He was a man of some means, and he was one that made his means a 
blessing to all his neighbors. He bought and improved section 11 of 
railroad land and put it in a good state of cultivation and built, we believe 
the first substantial frame dwelling house in "D" precMiict, where he 
resided until February, 1883, when he moved to Seward where he lived 
until his death. He was much interested in sheep and was the Hrst to 
introduce a fine herd in the countj'. 




Mrs. A. D. Ritchie 

Ml-. Ritchie was a man much interested in ijolitical matters. His 
independent nature often rebelled against what was known as machine 
politics. He was a strong republican, but was often at variance with 
party leaders, and always had the courage of his convictions. He was 
a man of great energy, and was a man of deeds as well as words. For 
twenty years his influence was a jjrominent factor in the county. He 
helped to organize the bank at Beaver Crossing and l)ecame its first 
president in 1888. 



144 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Mr. Ritchie was born at Edinl)argh, Scotland, May 2, 1824, but he 
saw away bej'ond the sea a brighter light and when a youth of nineteen 
he bade adieu to his old home with all its endearments, and found his 
way to the lietter land of the broad stripes and bright stars, and made 
his home at Waukegan, Illinois. 

On January 11, 1847, he was married to Miss Harriet Hoyt at Chi- 
cago, Illinois. She was an Ohio girl born August 22, 1826, in Me- 
dina, County. 

There were born to them five children: Hon. W. E. of "D" town; 
Alonzo D. of Hale, Missouri; Franklin C. , now deceased ; Alice G. , 
now Mrs. D. S. Jackson of Nebraska City and Jennie H. , late Mrs. H. 
B, Cummins of Seward, Nebraska. 

Mr. Ritchie died at Seward, April 25, 1892, and Mrs. Ritchie died 
at Seward, February 2, 1904. 

These good old people were among Seward County's best builders 
and their names are held dear by a great host of the ])eople. 

HON. W. E. RICHIE 

One of our most prominent and prosperous farmers of "D" pre- 
cinct. Was one among the first settlers to invade that wilderness prai- 
rie in 1870. It seemed so far from everywhere then, but Mr. Richie 
has lived to see great changes. Now "the solitary place" is made glad 
and the drove of elk an antelope that galloped over the plain have long 
since given place to the lowing herds of the farmer. 

Mr. Richie was born at Waukegan, Illinois, October 21, 1847. 
Married Miss Hattie Radford of the same place. She was born Janu- 
ary 1 , 1849. Seven children were born to them : George C. , John, now 
dead; Charles A.. Mabel A., now Mrs. Chris Evenbough ; Elizabeth E. , 
now Mrs. Wm. Dickenson; Alice G. . and Riith. 

Mr. Richie came to Seward County in 1870, and from that time to 
the present, he has been a factor in the development of the county. In 
1891 he was elected to represent the county in the legislature and in 
1889 was elected state senator for Seward and Butler Counties. 

Mr. Richie has long been identified with the Seward County Agri- 
cultural Society and is now it s president. 

JAMES A. REAMS 

A Pennsylvania boy that tired of the rocky hills and coal smoke of 
that rough region and strayed westward and landed in Iowa at twelve 
years of age. Was born in Clearfield C'ounty, March <j, 185B. You 
know when a boy starts west he can't well stop till he lands in Ne- 
braska. So in 1878 we find James in "M" precinct and one of the best 
things he found was a Nebraska girl and of course married Miss Sophia 
F. Buck, November 27, 1878 at Seward. She was born November 16, 
1859 in Scott County, Iowa, and came to Crete, NeV)raska in 1873. 

They have two daughters, Eleanor and Ida M. both accomplished 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 145 

young ladies. They reside in "N" precinct six miles east and south of 
Beaver Crossing. 

Mr. Reams is a member of the I. O. O. F. , and M. W. A. The 
church home is with the Evangelical church at Beaver Crossing. 

HON. ROBERT C. RHEA 

Says he was "an Easter egg" born April 23, 1848 in Preble County, 
Ohio. In early childnood found the way to Knox and Marshall Coun- 
ties, Illinois. Mr. Rhea enlisted in the regular army in August, 1867, 
and served to August, 1870. Was discharged at Atlanta, Georgia. 
Then he came west and settled on section 25, "N" town. November 11 ; 
he married Miss Hester Morgan, daughter ot Daniel Morgan at the 
Morgan home near where Ruby now stands. Mrs. Rhea was born Sep- 
tember 1, 1858, in Jackson County, Iowa, and came to Nebraska near 
Nebraska City in 1859 and to the Blue river in 1861. She thinks in 
1860. On this point authorities differ. 

Mr. Rhea represented Seward County m the Legislature in the 
sessions of 189B-18!)4. Mr. Rhea worked for Samuel Manley at the time 
he was killed in 1876 at Ulysses, Nebraska. He has ])een honored 
with three terms as supervisor from "N" precinct. 

AUGUST RIECHMANN 

A German boy born at Hanover, October 30, 1857. Landed on our 
shores. May 14, 1874 and found the right place (Seward) in 1875, when 
he commenced clerking for Joel Tishue. 

July 14, 1885. he married Miss Mary L. Oesterling of Dakota City, 
Nebraska. She was a Sioux City, Iowa, girl born October 2. 1862. 

They have two children : Annie, now Mrs. B. B. Campbell and 
Bonnie, yet at home. 

Mr. Riechmann is a clothier's salesman in Seward. He served 
Seward County two terms as county clerk. 

CHARLES RICENBAUGH 

Born in Juniatta County, Pennsylvania, June 13, 1840. Went with 
parents to Reading in early childhood and at ten they found their way 
to Wisconsin ; halted at Milwaukee, but made permanent home at 
Madison. 

Charley enlisted in Company I, 23d Wisconsin volunteer infantry. 
Was in seven battles, the siege of Vicksburg, ate hard tack with Banks 
and Grant. Was at Arkansas Post, at Carring Crow, Lousiana, at Fort 
Spanish and Mobile. 

Married Miss Charlotte Meyers at Madison, September, 1867. She 
was a German girl born June 29. 1846. Eight children were born, viz : 
Solomon W. A., Daniel, now dead; Ida E. , now Mrs. A. Clark; uavid, 
now dead; James E. , Norman A., Prudence, Ella K. and Joseph. 

The family made their home in Seward County in 1870, and settled 



146 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



foui' miles east of Seward. Has a splendid farm. Church home with 
M. E. people. Mr. Ricenbaugh has proved to be one of our most suc- 
cessful farmers. He owns four hundred acres of very valuable and well 
improved land. 




Residence of Mrs. S. E. Richmond 



RUSSELL 6. RICHMOND 

Had his birth place among the rocks of the cold Green Mountain 
state, February 9,1835, in Windham County. He had a roving disposi- 
tion and at six he strayed across the line into the old Bay state; when a 
young man he found and captured Miss Sarah E. Mowrey, May 20, 
1857 in Franklin County. She was born in Leyden, Massachusetts, 
March 7, 1889. They have two sons, viz. William A., a farmer of 
"L" precinct and Louis W. , a traveling man. 

The young people saw the bright western star and followed it to 
Kane County, Illinois, in 1863, where they halted twenty years, when a 
new inspiration struck them and in 1883, we find them on a beautiful 
farm in "L" precinct, Seward County. 

For the last six years they have retired from active labors of farm 
life and occupy a beautiful home in Utica. Mr. Richmond has his 
place with the I. O. O. F. , and the Rebeccas. 

Church home is with the Presbyterian people. A picture of their 
home adorns the head of this page. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 147 

DAVID RIVERS 

Born away up among the snow banks and chilling blasts of Minne- 
sota at Hastings, March 15, 1862. A few years later the River flowed 
southward to Kansas, where he found his best girl. Miss Anna A.Rich. 
So David got "Rich" in Kansas "you know." 

They were married at Clyde, April 18. 1888. Mrs. Rivers was a 
native of the Old Granite state. Born January 21, 1868, at Cornish and 
took the western trail in youth and came to the country of great rivers 
and splendid prairies. 

They are the proud parents of four children, viz : Blanche, Elvira, 
Clayton and Ralph. 

They came to Seward in 1888, May 30, on a wedding trip and 
Seward looked so good to them that they chose it as their home. Mr. 
Rivers bought a broom factory in 1896, thus helps our people to sweep 
clean. He is a member A. O. U. W. , and the M. W. A. 

David is a pretty good kind of a river to have and we are ready to 
welcome all such peaceful rivers within our landscape, 

JACOB ROTH 

A Canadian boy born June 28, 1875. Came to Iowa in childhood. 
In 1897 he strayed over into Illinois and there found Miss Lena Guth 
and was married February 28th. She was born October 30, 1871, in 
Illinois. They have four children, viz: Amos, Alvin, Clara and Sadie. 

They came to the Amish settlement in 1887 and located in "N" 
precinct on the P. J. Goodrich homestead. Mr. Roth is a farmer and 
his church is with the Amish Menonites. 

VALENTINE L. ROTH 

A native of Livingston County, Illinois, born January 16, 1880. 
His parents clmie to Seward County in 1888, when Valentine was but 
three year's old, and the lad has grown up here and February 20, 1902, 
he captured Miss Lydia M. Staufer. They were married at the Amish 
church. She was born January 25, 1883, on section 5, "O" town. 
They have one little one, Melvjn G. 

Mr. Roth has grown up in the Amish settlement and knows some- 
thing of the labor of developing a new country. Church relations are 
w^ith the Amish people. 

WILLIAM ROYER 
Born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, March ^8, 1865, and dug 
around amongst the stumps, stones and brush of his native burrough 
until 1888 when, all of a sudden he had a serious attack of western 
fever and we find him at Seward looking for a job. Ed Mclntj're came 
to the rescue and afterwards he was with Charley France at the Windsor 
hotel, where he not only got wages but Charley's sister and was mar- 
ried to Miss Emma France, one of Seward's best girls in 1898, October 



148 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

5th. Mrs. Royer was born at Laporte, Indiana, in 1863 ; came to 
Seward in 1890, where she assisted in the management of the hotel. 
They have one nice liaby girl, Elizabeth. It seems that Mr. Royer has 
increased his stature nearly a foot since the babe came to bless the 
home. 

In 1900, April 1st, he received his appointment as postmaster at 
Seward and seems to be giving good satisfaction . Mr. Royer is a 
public spirited citizen ; we understand that he is a republican in poli- 
tics at least we see President Roosevelt's picture in the postoffice, but 
of course we will let him have his way as long as he gives us plenty of 
mail. 

CHRIS A. RUCKSDASHEL 

Born in Seward Coitiity, boy that came to the home of his parents 
on the wild pra:rie, February 5, 1871. Had the finishing touches of his 
education in the Seward schools. In 1886 he went with his parents and 
tried to help l)uild up a home in Sherman County, Kansas, but the prai- 
rie dogs, hot winds and drouth were too much for them and they 
returned after fourteen years of struggle, to the land of plenty. 

Chris is now the efficient and obliging clerk at the Nome hotel in 
Seward. He is an Odd Fellow and a tolerably good fellow as well. 

FREDERIC RQRUP 

Was a native of Westphalia, born May 27, 1832. Was married to 
Charlotte Pieper, July 11, 1860, who was a native of same place, born 
October 29, 1839. Upon their wedding trip they crossed the Atlantic 
and found a home in Wisconsin. Children came to bless the home, as 
follows: Lottie, now Mrs. Wm. Rolfsmier; Fred C. ; Mary, now dead; 
Ida R., now Mrs. I. H. Feay ; Emily H. , Catherine Clara, August F. 
Albert H. and Lydia C. 

They came to their present home in "B" precinct in November, 
1887. The family church home is with the Lutheran church. Miss 
Emily H. is a saleslady at Seatle, Wa.shington ; Clara is a trained nurse 
at Lincoln and Lydia is one of Seward County's intelligent young 
teachers. The boys are farmers. Mr. Rurup has an elegant home on 
a valuable farm. 

CHAS. L. RURUP 

Was a native of tne Badger state, born at Madison, July 7, 1873. 
Somehow he found Nebraska in 1889, and October 29, 1901, at Aurora, 
he married Miss Hattie J. Worthington. She vvas born, March 8, 1876, 
at Aurora, so she was a child of the frontier. They have two little 
ones, viz: Charles L. and Ernest W. 

Came to Seward in 1889 and went to Utica in 1902 and has been 
with the Babson and Dickman Implement Co. now three years. He is 
a wide-awake and' trustworthy man. Is a member of the I. O. O. F., 
Ben Hur and A. O. U. W. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 149 

JOSEPH W. KUPP 

A most enterprising young merchant, was born at Munick, Ger- 
many, in 1871. Fell into the company of John Zimmerer while that 
gentleman was on a visit to the Fatherland in 1888 and came to Seward 
with him and clerked for him in the hardware house for twelve years, 
when in 1900 he took a partnership in the concern ;in(l is at this time a 
full partner with Mr. Zimmerers' successor. Mr. Rupp is a wide-awake 
and enterprising business man. 

L. A. RUTAN 

The rustler was born June 5, 18.")9. at Plain field, Illinois. In 1861 
the parents moved to Michigan but returned in 18(55 and settled in 
Livingston County. At f^eventeen he attended high school at Dwight 
i'or one term of eight months. Home work, home study and winter 
schools in country, was his opportunity, which he used to the best ad- 
vantage. 

In 1883, September 5th, he led to the marriage altar Miss Hattie 
Canham of Ford County. She was born January 15, 1864. They have 
ten children, viz: Larvina, now Mrs. W. Dey, Charles. OUie, M.\rtle, 
Herbert, Lilly, Mildred, Hattie, Mable and Hellen. The church home 
of the family is with the Presbyterian church of Seward. ]\lr Rutan 
is a member of the A. O. U. W. and M. W. A. He is a strong repub- 
lican. He is a farmei'. raises and feeds stock and takes delight with 
his herd of fine hogs and claims one of the best herds of Poland Chinas 
in the state. Mr. R. owns a beautiful farm on the banks of the classic 
Lincoln creek and calls it Riverside. Mr.Rutan came to Seward County 
in the spring of 1884. He is treasurer and active agent of the National 
Live Stock Association. 

FRANK M. RQZICKA 

One of our Nebraska products that is forging to the front. Was 
born in Colfax County, in 1878. He acquired such a thorough educa- 
tion and business training that in the spring he was invited to become 
cashier of the Tamora Farmers Exchange Bank, where he is rising in 
the esteem of the people of that wide-awake community. Perhaps some 
bright Seward County girl should become aware that Frank is not a 
married man. 

DR. DOUGLAS H. ROBERTS 

Now a successful practioner in the healing art, at Bethany, Ne- 
braska, is one of the boys Seward County sent out into the world to 
accomplish good work. Douglas was born, October 8, 18(30, in old Ful- 
ton County, Illinois, in the land of muddy roads and hazel brush. 
Douglas could not stay there. At the tender age of five he came on a 
tour of inspection to Seward County. His father drove the team but 
Douglas had the fun of the three hundred mile ride and camping of 



150 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

nights. The family made settlement on a homestead near Seward in 
the spring of 1866, where the lad had ample opportunities to chase cat- 
tle, fish in the river, perhaps he had a swim now and then. Was one of 
a class at the old log school house in winter of 1866 and 67. Learned 
how to farm on the old homestead. Received his first education at 
Seward. 

In 1887, he went on a wild goose chase to Kit Carson County. 
Colorado, but didn't catch the goose. Returned to Seward and took up 
the study of medicine and gradiiated in the Class of 1896 at Cotner 
university, with the degree of M. D. , when he at once stuck up his 
shingle under the shadow of his Alma Mater at Bethany and there he 
has labored successfully to the present in his noble profession. He is 
an honored member of the Lancaster County Medical Association. Is 
an Odd Fellow, a Mason, a member of the M. W. A., Royal High- 
landers and Royal Neighbors. Is a member of the Encampment No. 7, 
is also a member of American Medical Association and member of the 
Christian church. Has been closely identified with the upbuilding of 
Bethany. 

Was married to a Seward girl. Miss Frankie Manly, November 29, 
1882. There have been born to them children as follows : Frankie J. 
Aurora, Edith, Ruth and John R. The three first are dead. Mrs. 
Roberts was born at Muscatine, Iowa, November 29,1865, and came to 
Nebraska when a babe. Her father, Samuel Manly, was a prominent 
business man in Seward. Was killed by the caving in of a sand bank 
at Ulysses. 

PAUL SCHMADLEWSKY 

Was born in the city with an unspeakable name, Freinwalde, Ger- 
many, November 9, 1878. The Fatherland could not hold the lad for at 
four we find him in Nebraska, where in due time he learned the photog- 
rapher's trade and in 1904, February 16th, he married Miss Ida E. 
Bluhm. She was a native of Minier, Illinois, born September 8, 1886. 
They have one babe, Raymond P. 

Mr. Schmadlewsky came to Seward in 1900 and opened a splendid 
art gallery, which is a credit to the city. Church home is Evangelical 
Lutheran. 

JAMES M. SHEELY 

A Hoosier boy born in Vermilion County, March 9, 1852. When he 
approached manhood he made the discovery that the Star of Empire 
hung to the westward and at nineteen he took the great trail that led to 
the land of promise and where there were plenty of bridges to be built. 
He landed at Seward in 1871 one cool December day about the 27th 
On Washington's birthday, 1874, he concluded a contract with Miss 
Mary E. Knight, at her father's home six miles north of Seward. Mary 
was born August 26, 1855, in Jasper County, Iowa, and came to Seward 



HISTORY OF SEWAKD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 151 

County in her young girlhood. They liave seven children, viz: Lillie 
M., now Mrs. E. P. Hickman ; Nellie I., Mabel L., Bertha L.. Viola, 
Clyde W. and Glenn. 

Mr. Sheely has for many years been a prominent bridge builder in 
Seward and surrounding counties and hundreds of Seward County 
bridges are of his handy work. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. 
The church home of the Sheeleys is with the Presbyterians, of Seward. 
They own a beautiful home just north of the city. 

ANDREW SHULTZ 

A Prussia boy, born April 15, 1845, but old Prussia could not hold 
him. When ten years old he found his way to our better country and 
in 1855 we find him gazing at the first great new bridge spanning the 
Father of Waters at Rock Island. (It was just then completed. ) At 
the little old town of Hampton in Rock Island County, Mr. Shultz 
found and claimed a fair lady, Miss Mary Lange, and they were mar- 
ried, March 10, 1870 and the young couple took a wedding trip and 
landed on section 14. in '"I ' town, Seward County, in spring of 1870. 
Mrs. Shultz was a native Prussian, born July 29, 1847. They have had 
nine children four of whom are now dead, as follows: Andrew, Fred- 
eric, Henry, Annie and Minnie, deceased. Mary, now Mrs. Geo. Hart- 
man ; Lena, Otto and Edward. Mr. Shultz was one of the earliest home- 
steaders in "I"' precinct. He was a soldier boy in the 12th Missouri 
Volunteer infantry and saw plenty of service. Was introduced to the 
rebs at Pea Ridge, at Mission Ridge, Vicksburg, Jackson, Lookout 
Mountain and went from Atlanta to the Sea. He was in only twenty- 
two battles besides several skirmishes. 

Mr. Shultz is not only an excellent and successful farmer, but he is 
an all around first class citizen. Now owns a fine farm just east of 
Staplehurst. Church home of the family is with the Lutherans at 
Staplehurst. 

WILLIAM SHULTZ 

Was born and raised in Hanover, Germany. He first saw the light 
November 5, 1837, and was married to Miss Mina Alberti, December 5, 
1802, at Badenteich, Germany, where she was born December 5, 1841. 
They had eight children, viz: George H., Lothar F. , Herman H. , 
Frieda S., now Mrs. H. W. Homeyer; Jennie S. , now Mrs. H. O. 
Schaaf, Arthur H. , Bertha and Bernhard, now dead. 

Mr. and Mrs. Shultz came to Seward, April 28. 1875, where he was 
in active business neaily thirty years in the boot and shoe trade and 
during this long residence these good old people were highly respected. 
They moved to Nebraska City in 1903, to spend their remaining days 
with their daughter, Mrs. H. W. Homeyer. But they are kindly re- 
membered by a great host of friends. He is a member ot the A. O. U. 
W. Church home is with the Lutherans. 



152 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 





HISTORY OB^ SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



153 



LOTHAR F. SHULTZ 

A German boy, born in 18()5, Novem])er 2n(l, at Bascb, in the Pro- 
vince of Hanover. At ten he had crossed the great water and landed in 
Seward, May, 1875, where he was educated and it has been hia home now 
nearly thirty years. Lothar is now serving his second term as treas- 
urer of Seward County. He somehow found Miss Nellie F. Winekoop, 




Lothar F. Shultz 

and was married at Nebrask^i City, September !», bS'.K). She was born 
Septemlter 5), 1869, at Council Blntt's, Iowa. Two children have come to 
bless their hojne, viz: Uertrude L. and Harry H. 

Mr. Shultz is a member of the K of P., A. O.U. W., M. W. A and 
O. S. H. S. Lothar is (me of onr Seward boys that has come to the 
froiit in good shape. 



ARTHUR H. SHULTZ 

A Seward l)orn boy, that has seen much in a short life. Bom, 
Augu.st 19, 18TG, of first class (ierman parents. Was educated in the 
Seward schools. Enlisted in the famous Nebraska 1st and went throujih 
all the struggles with that brave regiment in the capture of Manilla 
and subduing the refractory Filipinos. Came home in due time with 
the boys and took a position with the Speltz Grain Co. at Milford 
where he wooed and won the hand and heart of Miss Dora Gouther of 
Milford, a German girl, and was married November 18, I90a. She was 
born in 1876, August 2'6rd. Mr. Shultz is Senior Warden in theMasonic 
lodge of Milford. 



154 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

HENRY SHULTZ 

Here is one of our thorough- bred German- American boys that 
crossed the ocean at seven years Henry was born in the Fatherland, 
July 7, 1848. His parents saw the bright lights on the western shore 
and in 1855, they found a home in Illinois where Henry grew up and 
in 1870, he found the new home in the beautiful valley of Lincoln creek 
on section 8, in "F" precinct. In the lonely wilderness they planted a 
home. In 1872, April 21st, Henry found his best girl. Miss May Bre- 
dow in Seward County. She was born in Germany, July '60, 1855, and 
<;ame to thi.s county in childhood. They have eight children living and 
one dead, viz: Lizzie, late Mrs. Wm. Hartraan ; Henry, ' Amelia, now 
Mrs. Wm. Foster; Sophia, Clara, Frederick, Annie and Trasey. 

Mr. Shnltz was a farmer and thresherman for twenty-eight years 
and now fur eighteen years he has been engaged in the Farm Implement 
business in Staplehurst where he has an elegant establishment and a 
large and growing trade. Mr. Shultz is one of our wide-awake busi- 
ness men and worthy citizens. Church home of the family is Lutheran. 

•GEORGE E. SALLADIN 

Cashier of the Nebraska State Bank of Milford since its organiza- 
tion in 1888. Was born among the rocks and rills and under the shadow 
of some of the wooded hills of Oswego County, New York, October 6, 
1857. The young man stood it in that old rough and rugged country 
until 1880, when an epidemic of western fever broke out and then 
George found the well beaten trail that led him straight to Seward 
County and he was so glad that he became firmly anchored at Milford. 
June 28, 1883, he married a New York girl, Miss Margaret Wheeler. 
Three children were born to them : Neal W. , died at six, and Margaret 
L. , and George E. , junior. 

Mrs. Salladin is one of the leading members of the Congregational 
church and is its secretary. Mr. Salladin is an honored member of A. 
F. and A. M. at Milford. A wide-awake citizen. 

HERMAN W. SCHLUETER 

Was born in the Badger states in Mariton County, July 26, 1870. 
His parents led him gently to Nebraska when the lad was four years 
old, so he is entirely a Seward County boy. We will claim him any- 
where. The old folks settled, on section 17 in "J" Town, where 
Herman grew to manhood. 

October 1, 1897, Herman had found Miss Emma Beckman away over 
in the east of "H" Precinct and they went over to the church on the 
county line and were married. Emma was a Seward County girl born 
June 25, 1877. They have four little ones, yiz: Lydia, Hubert, Elsie 
and Esther. The church home is with the Lutheran people. 

HENRY II. SHELTON 
A Warren County, Illinois, boy born in 1856. W^as taken by his 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 155 

parents to Missouri, before the war, but the climate did not agree with 
the Sheltons in war time, so they went hack to Illinois and remained 
five- years, till the dark clouds rolled by. when they again tried Missouri ; 
but when the bo3^ grew to be a man he thought a change for the clearer 
and purer air of Nebraska would be just the thing so in 1874, we find 
him on a homestead near Beaver Crossing. Some how or othei" he for- 
tunately found a young Iowa girl that had been transpianteti to Seward 
County soil, at a tender age. Miss Belle Culver, and was married in 
1883, and to them have been born eight children, three of whom died 
in infancy and one. May J., died at eleven. Those yet living are Harry, 
Alva, Nina, now Mrs. Wm. Miller, and Ida yet at home. 

Mr. Shelton is a member of the A. O. U. W. Mrs. Shelton is a 
working member of the Evangelical church. Mr. Shelton is a contrac- 
tor and builder. 

RICHARD SAMPSON 

One of the earliest pioneers of Seward County. Was born in Knox 
County, Illinois, May 11, 1839, where he grew to manhood and married 
Miss Mary C. Roberts, August 25, 1859. She was also a native Illinoian, 
born in Fulton County, November 5, 1840, and died on her 3()th birth- 
day, November 5, 1870, at Seward. 

There were born to them six children, three of whom died in in- 
fancy and three grew up in Seward county, viz: Clement C. , Noah A., 
^IarJ^ Susie, now Mrs. B. Hickman. 

Richard and his young wife came to Seward and homesteaded on sec- 
tion 17, in "(t'" town in the spring of 1865. April 6, 1880, Mr. Samp- 
son married Miss Sarah J. Carey at Seward. She was born at St. 
Louis, November 14, 1861. 

They are the parents of nine children, three of whom died in in- 
fancy and six are living, as follows : Sadie M., Helen C, Bessie E., 
Margaret L. , John A., and Herbert M. 

Ml-. Sampson is a farmer. He is a wheel hor.se in the democratic 
party in Seward County. The boys always know where to find Dick. 
In sunshine or in stoim he clings to the democratic standard and de- 
serves well of his party, much more than he ever gets. He is widelj* 
known and is an all around good citizen. He is a long time member of 
the A. F. and A .M. 

MILTON E. SHOREY 

Born among the rocky hills of old New York, in Lewis County, at 
Osceola, July 17, 1851, but got tired picking stone and mowing around 
stumps and in his teens struck for Illinois and made his home in Ogle 
County, and at twenty-one, in 1872, we find him at Milford and since 
that glad day Seward county has claimed him. He strayed away from 
his adopted town to Seward and found Miss Viola Cross and June 14, 
1881, they were married at Seward. Mrs. Shorey was born October 2, 
1862, at Sterling, Illinois. They have one child, Clyde E. 



156 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Mr. Shorey has a rather cold occnj^ation. Has for twenty years 
been engaged in the ice trade and has tried for ten years to keep the 
peojjle of Seward cool. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. and the M. 
W. A. The M. E. church is the family church home. 

HENRY SEICK 

Is another of those bright German lads that longed for a home 
where he could he free, and while yet a lad in his teens found his way 
to Seward county. He was born in Hanover, June 24, 1855, and April, 
1872, we find him on section 11, "H" town, making a farm on railroad 
land and March 4, 1879, he won the heart and hand of Miss Elnora 
Beckman. She was a German girl born in Hanover, July 22. 1858. 

They have five living chidren, viz: Frederick, Amelia, now Mrs. 
H. Schmeding; William, Elnora, and Emmn. They are prosperous far- 
mers and have a nice home. The church home is with the Lutherans. 

ERNEST SEICK 

Another German boy ihat just remained in the old country till he 
could earn money to get away, but when he came he did not forget to 
bring his best girl. Was born September 29, 1843. Married Miss Annie 
Fiemann, August 8, 1872, in Germany, and immediately took a good 
long wedding trip and landed in Seward County. September 9. 1872, and 
located on section 24, "H" town. 

Mrs. Sieck was born Sepember 24, 1847. Thej^ have had seven 
children born to them, two of whom died in infancy and five are living, 
viz: Emma, now Mrs. William He.ss ; Louis, Minnie, now Mrs. August 
Beckman ; Ernest and Ida. 

Mr. Sieck has proved a successful farmer and has a nice home and 
is a prosperous American farmer and thoroughly wide awake and en- 
terprising. Church home is with the Lutherans. 

JOHN S. SHANK 

An Ohio boy, born in Guernsey County, December 26, 1847. His 
parents moved to Mercer County, Ohio in 1868. They got tired of the 
blue clay hills, and had a siege of western fever which landed them in 
Guthrie County, Iowa, in 18B6. Here John happened to form the ac- 
quaintance of Miss Mary Shipley and they were married October 25, 1874. 

She was born in Noble County. Ohio, May 22, 1855, and came to 
Iowa in 18(38. They have seven children, viz: John W. , Logan E. . Ed- 
ward, died in infancy; Gertrude, now Mrs. E. Bogart ; Delia R., now 
dead; (irlenn S. and Annie F. 

The family came to Seward in 1882, where Mr. Shank worked as 
carpenter and builder for twenty years. He moved to Lincoln in 1902 
and resides at 2952 Star street. Mr. Shank enlisted in the Ohio na- 
tional guards during the war. He is a member of the Knights of the 
Maccabees. The church home of the family is with the M. E. people. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 157 

We all remember Mr. Shank as an industrious, worthy citizen of 
Seward for twenty years. His son Logan served in the Philippine war ; 
was in the battle at Blanga and Auglehalies and several skirmishes, but 
got through without a scratch. 

JOHN L. STAUFER 

Was a native of the province of Alsace at the time a part of France, 
and was of French parentage. Was born in 1861, in the town of Fol- 
ginsburg. In 1866, when John was five years old, the family left the 
fatherland and found a new home in McLean County, Illinois. In 1861 
he married Miss Barbary E. Roth, a lady born in Woodford County, 
Illinois in 1861. To them have been born eleven children, as follows : 
Kate A., now Mrs. D. Bender; Elizabeth B. , died at Milford at the age 
of nine; Emma, Annie, Barbary, Beniamin F. , Nicholas C. . Mary, 
who died in infancy ; Millie, Lillie, who died at Milford, and Ida, yet 
at home. 

Mr. Staufer came to Milford and settled on section 5, in "O" pre- 
cinct, in 1878, January 1, and has improved a most beautiful farm. 
His church relation is with the Amish Menonites. Mr. Staufer is one 
of our most respected and valuable citizens. 

HENRY FRANK SLONECKER 

One of our democratic wheel horses of "F" precinct. Was born in 
Harrison County, Ohio, October 14, 1848. His parents led the boy 
westwaid to Fulton County, Illinois, when Frank yet wore baby clothes 
in 1850, where he grew up in the land of brush and muddy roads. 
However, he found a way out of the brush on the prairie at Bushnell, 
and there found Miss Eliza J. Tanner, whom he won. and they were 
married March 12, 1874. In the following year the young people came 
to Seward County and located on section 2, "F' precinct at their 
present home. 

Mrs. Slonecker was born in Morgan County, Ohio, May 6, 1846. 
They have five children, as follows : John T. , Guy C. , George W. , now 
dead; Susie M. , now Mrs. N. P. Nelson; and Bertha M. 

Mr. Slonecker is one of those wide-awake fellows who always have 
something to say in political matters. He is a good farmer and busi- 
ness man. Is a member of the United Workmen and M. W. A. 

JOSEPH R. STAUFER 

One of the leading men of the Amish church Menonite settlement 
in west "O" town. Was born June 18, 1852, in Germany, and came 
across the ocean at fourteen and with his parents found a home in Mc- 
Lean County, Illinois, and later in Living.stone County, where he mar- 
ried Mi.ss Mary Guth, March 17. 1874. She was a German girl, born 
February 22, 1850. She died February 26, 1878. They had two child- 
ren, viz : Lena, now Mrs. P. Reil, and Phoebe, now Mrs. Ben Lauber. 



158 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Mr. Staufer came to Seward County and settled on section 5, ia 
"O" precinct, the present home, in January, 1878. 

January 1.1888, he married Miss Mattie Bender, at Mount Pleasant, 
Iowa. She was born April 11, 18r)6, in Canada. Six children were 
born to them, viz: Barbary, Lydia, Amanda, now dead ; Fannie, Lu- 
cinda, David, now dead ; Jesse E. , and Ezra. Barbary is now Mrs. 
Jacob Brenneman, and Lj-dia is now Mrs. V. L. Roth. 

PHILLIP J. STOLZ 

Was a German boy born in Baden, June 7, 1838. He had the cour- 
age to leave the fatherand and came to America when only fourteen, 
and located in Stevenson County, Illinois, where in 1862 he married 
Miss Matilda Stabler June 28th. She was born March 28, 1845, in 
Juniata County, Pennsylvania. They have nine children, viz: Emma 
J Kinsmeyer, P. John, Ida C. Walkenwood, George F. , Walter B. , 
Homer J., Nora, Edgar A., and Austin H. 

The family came to Seward County and located on a farm in "P" 
precinct in 1874. Mr. Stolz was a farmer, but some years ago moved 
to Milford where the old people try to enjoy life as best they can. 
Church home is with the Evangelical A.ssociation. 

JOHN P. STULZ 

This young man was born and spent his early youth among the 
same old hills, perambulating the same old playgrounds and swimming 
in the same old Pecatonica river where the author spent his childhood 
days, in Stevenson County, Illinois, the land of pleasant memories. 

John came in childhood, 1873, to Milford, whei'e he grew to man- 
hood on the beautiful plain east of the village. March 8, 1888, he 
married Miss Annie G. Deden, at Milford. She was born in Germany, 
November 25, 18(38. and came in childhood to this country. They have 
five children, viz: Esther, Nettie, Martha, Alvin and Alvena. Mr. 
Stolz now owns a farm four miles northeast of Milford, where he is 
trying to make a pleasant home. Church home of the family is with 
the Evangelical people. 

HOMER J. STOLZ 

Came to Seward County to draw his first breath on his father's 
farm on section 6, in "P" town, just east of Milford. The lad was 
born NovemV)er 17, 1877. He grew up on the farm and still continues 
the honorable vocation. In due time he discovered a Utica girl that 
was also a Seward County product and February 15, 1900, he married 
Miss Clara Goodbrod at Utica. She was born in that village October 16, 
1877. She has the honor of being Utica 's fir.st born child. 

They have had two children born, but one died in infancy. Little 
Margaret remains to them. They live on section 6, "P" town, a part 
of the old home place. The church home is with the German Evan- 
gelical Association 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



159 



WALTER B. STOLZ 

Another Stevenson County, Illinois, boy born July 29, 1878, but was 
only a six months old babe when Seward County became his home. 
Section 6, "P" town, was the Stolz home where Walter has lived' all 
his life. However, he strayed away to Murdock, Nebraska, to find his 
Mary and in due time, March 8, 1900, he married Miss Mary Rekli at 
her old home in Cass County, where she was born October 28. 1879. 
One child blesses the home, little Fay, born May 7, 1902. They are 
members of the Evangelical Association. 




Abraham V. Skillman 

One of the brave lads who came to Seward County in 1865 with his 
elder brother, Thomas, when but a lad of sixteen years. Grew to man- 
hood in the wilderness and .schooled in the ups and downs of pioneer 
life. As years rolled on he developed many traits of character worthy 
of emulation. He became an energetic and successful business man, 
respected by all who knew him. Abe, so everybody called him, was 
born at Harrington, New Jersey. September 11, 1848. His father died 
when the boy was but two years old. Two years later his mother was 
married to William Hageman and the family moved to Fulton County, 
Illinois, where Abraham was educated in the common schools and in 
the fields of his stepfather. The lad longed for the freer air of the Avest 
and sought the first opportunity to break away from his okl environ- 
ment. In 1872 he wooed and won the heart and hand of Miss Lucinda 
Morton. This estimable young lady was born and raised in Green 



160 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



County, Wisconsin, and with her parents came to Seward County but a 
short time before Lucinda was V)orn, in 1854. 

Mr. and Mrs. SkiHinan were both in pooi health for many years 
and yet each of them displayed a degree of courage and ambition most 
remarkable. They helped nobly to build Nebraska and earned and saved 
quite a competency. After much suffering Mr. Skillman finished his 
work and was called up higher on July 22, 1902. His remains are rest- 
ing in the beautiful Seward Cemetery. 




Mrs. Abraham V. Skillman 



THOMAS SKILLMAN 

The first settler in "F" precinct came to Seward County in the 
early spring of 1865. Thomas was born in New Jersey in 1848, No- 
vemVjer 1st. His father died when he was but six years old. His 
mother married her second husband in 1851 and the family moved to 
Fulton County, Illinois, where the lad grew to manhood. He married 
Miss America Johnson in 18C4 and the next spring the young couple 
got their eyes fixed on the star of emi)ire and followed it to the wilder- 
ness of Seward County, where by dint of perseverence they built for 
themselves a pleasant and prosperous home. In the years of their first 
settlement they had some pretty hard times, but with determination they 
labored until success crowned their efforts. The farm was the most 
western in the county for a time. It does not look much like it now. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 161 

Mrs. Skillman was born and raised in Fulton County. They have 
only one son, Jerry, now a prosperous farmer of Buffalo County. There 
is one grandson. Clee B. , of whom Grandpa Skillman is very proud. 

Mrs. Skillman was a most estimable Christian lady and was from 
childhood an energetic worker in the United Brethren church and 
helped to organize the church in Seward. After a lingering illness she 
was called home in March, 1905, loved and honored by the whole com- 
munity. 

ABEL D. SMITH 

Another of the old timers. Was born where he could roll rocks 
down the old hills of Vermont, in Orange County, November 29, 1823. 
At eighteen he got tired of hauling stone on a stone boat and found the 
trail that led to Fondulac County, Wisconsin, where he married Miss 
Mary Wyman, July 2. 1849. 

Six children weie born to them, viz: Electa K. , now^ Mrs. F. H. 
iNewton; Norman W., Fdward M., Orvis W., Anson W., and Abel D., 
Jr. The family located on the present home in 1871 and have made a 
beautiful and valuable farm. Mrs. Smith died in 1901. Church home 
with the M. E. Church. 

Anson W. was born November 1. 1863. Wjis married to Miss Ada 
Snodgrass, August 7, 1887. Three little ones now grace 'the home: Iva 
B. , Loyd M., and Lilla O. Mr. Smith is a Mason. 

WILLIAM H. SMITH 

Came to Seward in 1897. in March, and bought of P. C. Carpenter 
the "Democrat" and in the following June bought of the Independent 
publishing company the "Independent" and con.solidated them under 
the name, Independent-Democrat. Mr. Smith has brought the paper 
up to the point of being entirely self supporting and profitable. It now 
ranks as first class among the county papers of the state. Mr. Smith is 
a very genial and courteous gentleman and deserves well of his party 
and the community. The paper is democratic in its politics but more 
to the point it is always ready to show its hand in favor of the city and 
county and is always ready to encourage any and every good work for 
the advancement of the city in its development, materially or morally. 

Mr. Smith was born in Henry County, Illinois, in 1873. Came in 
his boyhood days to Tipton, Iowa, where he learned the printer's trade. 
In 1901, June 12th, he made a ten strike in Seward when he married one 
of oiar best young teachers. Miss Delia Fletcher, daughter of J. M. 
Fletcher. She was born in Indiana and came to Seward with her pa- 
rents when j-et a young girl and received her education principally in 
our schools, where she graduated with honors in the class of 1889. She 
was employed for a number of years in our public schools and had it not 
been for Mr. Smith's persuasion^ she might yet be doing good service 
there, but so goes the world. She renders Mr. Smith much assistance 
in his editorial work. 



162 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

WILLIAM SMILEY 

One of the honorable and most ancient citizens of the present gen- 
eration of pioneers. Was born in Washington County, Iowa, Juy 4, 
1845. He ought to be patriotic and we gue.ss he is. Was educated just 
like the most of us were, in a log school house on the frontier. One 
notable thing about his education was, he learned the way to Nebraska 
ana landed at Milford May 6, 1866, and located a homestead on section 
4, "'O" town. In the county seat contest William was one of the boys 
that Milford could always depend on. Was always ready and willing to 
dare and do for his home place. 

Mr. Smiley found a good wife just up the river at the home of 
Samuel Brown, and married Miss Esther, who was born in 1848, in 
Brown County. Ohio, and came to Milford with the old folks in 1865. 
This happy event occurred March 21, 1868. One of the unique exper- 
iences of Mr. Smiley's frontier life was as an overland freighter, and if 
we should tell all his experiences on the plains and how he got scared 
by an Indian war dance, it would take the most of this book. 

There was a young tenderfoot preacher up near Seward, Bev. E. W. 
Johnson, who tied the knot for William and Esther, and it was about 
the first treat of that kind in the hi.story of Milford. William had to 
make a full day's journey to the extreme northeast corner of the county 
for his license, where Judge J. D. Maine held his office in a little log 
cabin on Oak Creek. But what did Willie care. He commenced the 
livery business in 1878 and followed the bronchos twenty-one j^ears, and 
has traversed nearly every road in all the region round-about. Is now 
a partner with Uncle Sam in helping distribute mail on a rural route. 

In 1866 Mr. Smiley followed the trail with an ox goad in hand, ac- 
companied by six yoke of oxen with a little load of nine thousand 
pounds of bacon, which he landed at Fort Morgan all O.K. Mr. Smiley 
always "gets there" with what he undertakes. All in all he is a first 
class citizen and a good, kind hearted neighbor. 

Mrs. Smiley is a most noble Christian lady and her church home is 
with the Congregational people. 

JAMES M. SMILEY 

Once deputy and three times sheriff of our county, is the record of 
the boy that was l)orn October 14, 1849, in McDonough County, Illinois, 
where he had just the opportunities of the common farmer boy. But 
he was one of the lads that caught a glimpse of the rising star, Ne- 
braska, and in 1874 he took a pilgrimage to the new land, but did not 
make it his permanent home till 1882, when he settled in "K" town. 
In 1888 he captured the daughter of Steven Phillipps, of "D" precinct, 
Miss Hattie C. and they were married Ootober 6. 

She was born in Fulton County, Illinois. Two children were given 
to them, Carl C. , and Earl B. , yet at home. 

Mr. Smiley was appointed deputy sheriff Imt is now serving the 
third term as sheriff. Is a strong, everyday republican. In his official 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 163 

career he has had some exciting experiences one of which we must 
relate. There was an all around bad character known as W. P. Moore, 
but whose real name was Elander L. Bliss. This fellow had been one 
of the famous Quantrell band that was such a terror in war times. 
He was posing as a preacher in the country southwest of the city. He 
had a bad record and was wanted in Missouri and other states but he 
was "up to snuff" and had eluded the Pinkertons for years. In short, 
he was a desperado of the worst type. His Seward County offense was 
forging a check on the Tamora bank and stealing a horse from James 
Devine. Smiley got on his trail and followed him for seven months 
and finally trapped him at a religious meeting while he was making a 
most eloquent prayer. This was in the Ozark mountains of Arkansas' 
The coup was complete, although it was in a country full of the out- 
law's friends and general desperate characters. With the help of a 
trusty friend the prisoner was secured and taken overland across the 
mountain sixty miles on horseback one dark night, as it was not 
safe in that community to dally, Jim landed his man all right, and he 
served five yeai-s in the penitentiary. 

CHRISTIAN SCHAAL 

A rustling wide-awake German boy, born December 2H, 1851. He 
loved the old home of course, but he saw something beyond the seas 
that he loved better, so in 1880, after getting Miss Lydia Stenestel 
interested they started soon after May 30, 1880, on a wedding trip, 
which led them all the way to the present home in Seward County, in 
"C" precinct, where he now owns a splendid farm. Mrs. Schaal was 
born in Germany, in 1856, November 16th. 

They have five Seward County boys and girls, viz : Carl, Ernest, 
Fritz, Martha and Albert all at home. Well done for the young Ger- 
man-American family. Their church home is with the Evangelical 
Lutherans. 

OSCEOLA A. SHAW 

One of the early and most respected citizens of "I" precinct. Was 
born July 11, 1862, at Keokuk, Iowa, where he grew to manhood and 
received his education. 1875, March 10th, he concluded a good bargain 
with Miss Ruth Cady, in Des Moines County, Iowa. She was an Iowa 
girl born in Des Moines County, in lSiy6. They have two boys, Fred F. 
and Ernest L. They came to the present home in 1885, on section' 12, 
"I" town. Mrs. Shaw is a working member of the M. E. church at 
Pleasant Dale. Mr. Shaw belongs to the Maccabees and is a member of 
the school board of the village. 

SIMEON SNOW 

In the wild woods of a Michigan wilderness in Iowa County, Simeon 
was born February 24, 1840, in that new territory in the days of 



164 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

"Tipicanoe and Tyler too." You may imagine the life of Simeon chas- 
ing squirrels in the woods and gathering nuts, grubing brush, etc. He 
somehow found Nebraska in 1869, he also found Miss Lavina M. Long, 
a pioneer girl of Seward County and was married, October 6, 1870. She 
was born in La Porte County, Indiana, March 23, 1847. 

Came to Seward County in 1863. Seven children were born to 
them. The first died in infancy. The living are Bertha N. , now 
Mrs. H. E. Wood, Loiivica T. , now Mrs. E. Bosh, Loila S. , now Mrs. 
C. E. Fralick, Alonzo S. , Addison S. and Imogene. The church home 
of the family is with the Presbyterians. Mr. Snow resides at Ruby. 
Belongs to the I. O. O. F. 

GEORGE SLONECKER 

One of the pioneers of Seward County. Was born in Westmoreland 
County, Pennsylvania, in 1825, where he worked on a farm and went 
to school while a lad, but in his teens was apprenticed to a wagon- 
maker where he put in three years learning the trade. In 1849, he for- 
tunately became acquainted with Miss Susan Gibbs and of course he 
won her hand and heart and was married. 

She was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, but in her youth 
moved with her parents to Mount Pleasant in same .state where she was 
educated. They moved to Mount Pleasant, Illinois, in 1856, where 
they fanned and Mr. Slonecker worked part of the time at his trade. 

Mr. and Mrs. Slonecker had born to them ten children, five boys 
and five girls. Tho.se yet living are Alonzo, James, Charles, John, Belie, 
now Mrs. Geo. Dewitt; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Alex McClain ; Ella, now 
Mrs. Joseph Slonecker and Laura, now Mrs. Theodore Sampson. 
George died in 1892, November 6th, Lydia is also dead. The family 
took a homestead in "F' precinct, four miles west of the city, in 1869 
and there the boys and girls grew up to manhood and womanhood. The 
four boys each secuj-ed homesteads in the neighorhood and are all pros- 
perous. 

Some years ago the old folks moved into the city and are enjoying 
life as l)est they can at their cozy home. Mr. and Mrs. Slonecker are 
working members of the M. E. church. 

JOHN SLONECKER 

Familiarly known as Uncle John, was a child of the old Keystone 
state, and had much experience in that, then, new country where rolling 
logs, burning brush and building stone fences were the cheerful laboi's 
of the growing boy. Then John used to hunt coons and trail bears in 
the wild woods. He was born, February 5, 1822, in Westmoreland 
County ; just think ! that was before there was an iron rail in all the 
world. When all the country west of the Alleghanies was a vast wilder- 
ness. When John was twelve he followed the lilazed trees westward to 
Harrison County, Ohio, and there helped to clear a farm. 

Eleven years later the family again struck the trail leading to the 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 165 

great western prairies. He just followed his girl "you know" to Mc- 
Doiinah County, Illinois, where he remained till he caught the Ne- 
braska fever in 1875. In 3850, January 10th, he and Miss Emily Hen- 
derson, an Ohio girl, were married in Fulton County, Illinois. She 
was born in Harrison County, April 3()th, 1821). They ai-e parents of 
four children, viz: Russell, William, Mary, now Mrs. Chas. Gladwish 
and John who died in infanc}'. In 1875 the family found their way to 
Seward County, and bought Mrs. Spicer's homestead, on section 22, "F" 
town. The old couple moved into Tamora some years aeo, vvjiere they 
are trying to enjoy the fruits of a well-spent life. Their chui'ch home 
is with the Christian church at Seward. The old iDeople have four 
grandchildren, viz: Lester, Howard and Ruth Slonecker and Verne 
Gladwish. 

ALONZO SLONECKER 

Was born in the Old Keystone state among the everlasting hills of 
that rough old region where they raise rocks, stumps and blackberry 
briars in grand ijrofusion. Alonzo came to life and light, June 29, 1850, 
in Mount Pleasant. He found the great trail leading westward in this 
eai'ly youth and spent his vouth in Fulton and McDounah Counties, 
Illinois, where he worked on the farm until eighteen, when he again 
took the trail toward the setting sun and landed at Seward with his 
parents in 1801). The family was among the first to break the sod in 
"F" precinct. July '6, 1878, Alonzo married a Geneva girl, Miss Mary 
E. Everts. She was a Fulton County, Illinois, girl born December 20, 
1858, and came to Nebraska in her young girlhood. 

They have five children, viz: George A., Velma and baby boy, died 
in infancy ; Roy M. and Madge O. He is a member of the M. W. of A. 
and R. N. of A. Church home of the family is with the M. E. people. 

He owns a beautiful farm on state road five miles west of Seward. 
Has resided in Seward County thirty-si.x years and is counted among 
our most worthy citizens. 

JAMES W. SLONECKER 

Was one of the lads that came to the wilderness of Seward Countj', 
when only sixteen years old and helped to break the wild sod on his 
fathers farm in "F" precinct. James was born October '6, 1852, away 
down east among the mountains of the old Keystone state at Mount 
Pleasant, and it was not a very pleasant place after all but Jim did not 
stay there long enough to learn to navigate a stone boat or build many 
brush fences. The old folks took the western fever when Jim was 
young and settled in Fulton County, Illinois, and later in McDounah 
County and in 1868, they found the right place in Seward County. 

On the great prairie westward from the parental home, Jim some- 
how found Miss Ada Whitnah and they were married February 15, 1877. 
Miss Whitnah was born January 24, 1859, at Xenia Ohio. They were 
married at Seward and at once occupied the homestead in "F" precinct 



166 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

where they yet live and have improved a beautiful farm. Two children 
came to bless the home, Mae and Chester. Their location is on the 
high table land four miles west of Seward. Their church home is with 
the Methodists at Seward. 

RUSSELL SLONECKER 

An Illinois born boy who came to light and life in the land of 
muddy roads and brushy fields, old Fulton County, Jan. 6, 1851. There 
he remained until the family caught the western fever in 1875 when 
they found the trail leading to Seward County and made their home in 
"F" precinct. 

In 1878, March 7th, he found his best girl. Miss Clara L. VVykoff, 
and was married. Mrs. Slonecker was born among the rocky hills of 
Lycuming County, Pennsylvania, January 11, 18'J(J,and came to Seward 
with her widowed mother in her early youth. The young peojtle 
opened a farm on the state road four miles east of Seward and remained 
there until the spring of 1892, when they went to Beaver Crossing and 
opened a furniture store and remained there until a succession of crop 
failures made the business untenable, when they moved back to the 
farm and remained there until 1903, when he engaged with I. L. 
Dermond in the general merchandise business at Beaver Crossing. 

They are the parents of three children, viz: Maiid E . died January 
3, 1881 ; Lester R. , now an attorney at law in Omaha ; and Riith R. , 
yet at home. 

The church home is with the M. E. folks at the Crossing. Mr. and 
Mrs. Slonecker are active members of the M. W. A. and R. N. of A., 
of Tamora, also charter members of the Ben Hur Court No. 94, at the 
Crossing. Mr. Slonecker is a wide-awake and valuable citizen of his 
town and county. 

JOHN SELL 

A (merman boy that fovind his way to our country when a lad of 
fourteen. Was born December 20, 1858. He came to Ottawa, Illinois, 
in 1872, and there he learned American ways and in 1886, April 14th, 
he married Miss Annie VVergin.of Ottawa. She was a genuine (Terman 
girl, born August 9, 18(54, and came to Illinois when eight years old, 

They have seven children, viz: Minnie B. , Emma S. . Albert E, 
Alma A., Hattie H. , Lizzie M., and Arthur R. They came to Seward 
County and settled on the old Abe Hageman homestead in the spring of 
1893 in "J" precinct. Mr. Sell is a prosperous farmer. The church 
home of the Sells is Lutheran. 

NIELS STEFFENSEN 

Born in old Denmark, December 10, 1852. Crossed the old ocean at 
eight and landed at Indianapolis, Indiana, where he grew uj) and where 
he found a girl from the Fatherland and married Miss Annie M. John- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 167 

sen, January 18, 1874. at the Capital City. She was born December 18, 
1851, in Denmark, and came to Indiana in 1871. 

They have eight children, viz: John P. , Frederick, Annie, now 
Mrs. R. J. Christiansen; Marie, Christiana, Nilsijne. Henry and Carl. 
The family located on section 30, "N" town in 18!M). The church home 
is at Cordovia with the Lutherans. 

Mr. Steffensen is an energetic farmer and owns a most beautiful 
place which is nicely improved. 

JOEL STECKLY 

Another Canada boy that was allured by the "red white and bbie" 
and decided when a young man of twenty to become a citizen of our 
great republic. They settled in McLean County, Illinois, in 1879, but 
they tarried there only till December 1885, when they found their way 
to Seward County and settled on section 17 in "O" precinct near the 
great chruch, where Mr. Steckly owns a splendid farm. He was born 
in Ontario, September 30, 1859, and married Miss Phoebe Zimmerman, 
February' 3,1880, in McLean County, Illinois, She was born at Danvers, 
Illinois, July 25, 1857. 

They have had six children, viz: Jonathan born March 7, 1883. 

Christian born October 7. 1885. Lydia born October, 1888. Matilda, 

born July 30, 1891. Amos born December 6, 1894. died in infancy. 

Jacob born March 7, 1897, and Lena born August 28, 1898. Church 

•home is with the Amish Menonites. 

VALENTINE F. SPRINGER 

Was born in France, February 4, 185»>, but did not stay here very 
long. His parents took the boy on a lonsr vttyage and landed in Liv- 
ingston County, Illinois, in 1859. Valentine had heard of Nebraska and 
at twenty-four he left the land of muddy roads for Seward County and 
located near Milford in 1877. After getting things fixed to his notion 
he found Miss Magdalina Detwieler and they were married February 
13, 1881, in Seward County. She was born Jidy 26, 1865, in McLean 
County, Illinois, and came to Seward County when a child. They have 
born to them seven children, viz: Catherine B. , Chris F. , Mary M. , 
Louisa L., Annie B., died in infancy; Nicholas W., Edward H. and 
Emma E. 

Their present home is on section 2(5, "J" precinct, which Mr. 
Springer bought in 1902. Their church home is with the Amish 
Menonites. 

FREDERIC SUHR 

Was born in 1844, in Germany, and came to the United States at 
nineteen and first made his home near Albany, New York, but one 
year later continued his march westward and landed in Kane ('ounty, 
Illinois. There he was married to Miss Maria Riedel who also came 



168 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

from the old home in Gei'many, born February 22nd, 1843, but came to 
this country in early childhood. They were married in 1866. They 
came to Seward County in 187U and took a homestead in "E" precinct. 
In later years he bought land in "D" precinct, where he has made a 
beautiful and valuable farm. 

They have had born nine children. Seven yet living, viz: Carl, 
Maria, now Mrs. F. Pazehl ; John, Hallig, Frederic. Fronze and Loita. 
The church home is with the Lutheran people. 

PETER SWANSEN 

A young man that longed for a better home in a new land of 
grander opportunities. Was born in Sweden, September 4, 1840, and 
came to the United States in 1868, but before he came married Miss 
Bangta Nils of his native home, December 29, 18()5. She was born. 
May 12, 1844. They have three children, viz: Pamela, , now dead; 
Jennie, now Mrs. Ed (ilme ; and Jessie, now Mrs. O. W. Rhodes. 

They came to Seward County in 1878 and settled in "E" precinct 
between Tamora and Utica on section 35. They belong to the Presby- 
terian church. Mr. Swansen is a thoroughly good Swedish-American 
and a valuable citizen. 

MASON L. SWEASEY 

An Illinois boy that found the trail leading to Seward County when 
fourteen years old. With the parents he lived on a farm two miles 
south of Milford. The farm was the old homestead of Rev. T. M. 
Skinner. Mason was born in McDounough County, August 26, 1866. 

In 1891, March 1st, he concluded a good bargain with Miss Lucy 
Pleines of Ruby, where they were married at her father's home. She 
was born March 14, 1870, in McLean County, Illinois. 

Mr. Sweasey came to Seward County in February. 1880. He has 
been engaged in the livery business at Milford for three years, and is a 
wide-awake business man and seems to understand his business. 

STEWART T. SWEASEY 

Who has been for two years with the Babson Dickman Implement 
house at Milford, was born August 16, 1871 in McDounough County, 
Illinois, and came with his parents to Seward County in 1880. Two 
years later the father died, leaving Stewart only eleven years old to- 
gether with two older brothers to assist the widowed mother to make 
a living for the family on a new farm. He received his education in 
the high school at Milford. Had many hard struggles in his boyhood 
days. 

Married May 24, 1903, to Miss Jennie Frangen of Bruning, Ne- 
braska, an Illinois girl who came in childhood to Nebraska. Mr. 
Sweasey commenced his life work as liveryman and followed it two 
years, when he accepted the present position. Three brothers although 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 169 

bvit boys improved and saved the homestead, which they finished pay- 
ing for by their earnings. 




Jacob J. Thomas 

Among the rocky hills and brush of Hancock County, Illinois. Jacob 
was born January. 1 1869. His parents knew that it would not do to 
keep the lad in such a country as that and made haste in the fall of 
18(59, to transplant him in Seward county soil. The boy had all sorts of 
fun with the prai''ie dogs and jack rabbits out in "H" precinct. When 
eight years old we find him in Seward, blowing a horn in the brass 
band. Was educated in the city schools and graduated in the Class of 
188t), and in the University of Michigan in the Class of 1890, in the 
law department. In August, 1891, he stuck up his shingle in Seward 
where lie has built up a large practice. Elected Countv Attorney in 1894 
and was elected county judge in 1897 and re-elected in 1899. Jacob is 
getting well to the front and is one of our Seward County lads that we 
are proud of. 

Our only objection to Jacob is that he seems determined to lead the 
forlorn life of a bachelor while there are so many excellent girls in and 
around Seward. 



OTTO TAEGE 
A German boy born June 7, 1856, and found his way in boyhood to 
Illinois where he grew to manhood and there married Miss Augusta 



170 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Wusler, December 29, 1879. She was born August 1, 1856, in Illinois. 
They have six children, viz: Louie, Albert, George, Otto, Emma and 
Eddie. 

The family came to Seward County in 1880 and bought a farm in 
"K" precinct, where they have an elegant home. Mrs. Taege's father, 
George Wussler, was a Second Lieutenant in the army and was killed 
in Missouri, in 18(51, July 25th. Mr. Taege belongs to the Sons of Her- 
man, also the M. W. A. and United Workman. The church home is 
with the Evangelical people. 




James Gallienne Taylor 

James Gallienne Taylor was burn at the family homestead Mont 
Durand House, St. Pierre's Island of Guernsey on October 30, 1824, on 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA I7l 

the paternal side of Scotch ancestry, his great-grand-father having 
come to the Island from Aberdeen, Scotland, early in 17U0, and on the 
maternal side of French Huguenot stock. His father, who was a pro- 
fessor of mathematics from early life until practically within two years 
of his death, sailed for Labrador via Quebec to take charge as super- 
cargo of a fishing fleet, for a (jruernsey company, but died almost im- 
mediately on his arrival at Quebec during the great cholera epidemic 
in 1882. 

The lad was left an orphan at the age of eight years. Pie had lived 
since his fourth year with his paternal grand-mother and until her 
death in December, 1831. His elder brothers and sisters having already 
died, he was placed with other relatives, who sent him to England to 
school in July, 1836. His education was completed at Rundel Academy 
near St. Ives, Cornwall. On March 5, 1848, he was married in London 
to ]N[ary Ann Judd, starting almost immediately for America where he 
arrived October 1, 1848, living in New York state until 1805 and in 
Massachusetts dui-ing the next fourteen years. He came to Sevvai'd 
County in October, 187'J, where he lived continuously until January 
1!»00, when he took up his residence with his oldest son in Omaha. He 
still retains the farm he took as wild prairie in 1879, and it is now 
perhai)s as highly developed and as perfect of its kind as any property 
in the county. His wife is well remembered by our old settlers for her 
kindly Christian character, died at the family homestead in this city, 
December 15, 1894 and is buried in the family lot in Greenwood ceme- 
tery. 

Mr. Taylor is a father, grand-father and great-grand-father. He 
still regards Seward as his home and his greatest pleasure is to visit 
his many old friends in this locally. The author has had the pleasure 
of an acquaintance with Father Taylor (as we all love to call him) for 
over a (piarter of a century, and we have learned to esteem him as a 
most worthy Christian gentleman that has acted well his part in de- 
veloping this new land. He has been an honored member of the Epis- 
copal church for over forty years. 

JOHN R. S. TAYLOR 
Our good kind old colored neighbor was born and raised a slave. 
Born in Calaway County, Missouri, April 22, 1838. Married Miss 
Sarah A. Rhodes. July 4, 1863, in Calaway County. Mrs. Taylor was 
born in Albemarle County, Virginia in 1848, date not known. They 
are the parents of ten children, two of which died in infancy, and Ed- 
ward died at fifteen, Nathaniel, Daseman. OtisR. , Russel S. , now a 
minister at Big Stone Gap, Virginia, being thoroughly educated 
for the profession, graduating at Seward with high honors, then at 
Belevue, Nebraska, and then taking a two years course at Cincinnati 
Ohio. He is one of the bright Seward boys that has gone out in the 
world to do some good. (No disgrace for a white num to eat at the 
table with Russel Taylor. ) Next is Alice R. , Rosa A. , now Mrs. S. D. 
Jones ; Catherine L. , William F. , and Joseph T. E. 



172 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

The family came to Seward in 1884. Mr. Taylor enlisted in the 
Union army soon after his liberation but his company was not called 
into active service The church home of the family is with the M. E. 
people. 

FERGUSON F. TLMBLIN 

Was born July 25, 1830, among the mountains of old Pennsylvania 
in Jefferson County and there he piled brush and gathered stone until of 
age. Some how he found his way to Jones County, Iowa, where he 
found Miss Eve J. Colnian and was married August 28, 1858. She was 
a Hoosier gii'l born in Noble County, June 16, 1835. They are parents 
of six children, viz: AlvaL. , V. I. Weeks, Margaret E. Welch, Levi 
E.. Elvi L. and Myrtle H. 

The family came to Seward County in 1869 and homesteaded in 
"B" ijrecinct, where they remained many years then moved to Hamil- 
ton County and now reside at Weeping Water, Nebraska. Read Mr. 
Timblin's historic letter. 

WILLIAM R. TRIMBLE 

Was a Pennsylvania boy, born in Cumberland County in 1862. He 
climbed the rocky hills and walked among the stumps and stones of 
that rough region until he was nineteen, when he struck the western 
trail and it of course landed him in Nebraska, where he helped in the 
building of bridges for the A. N. R. R. Next we find him as ship- 
ping clerk for the Milford mills. 

Married Miss Gillie Clark of Columbus, Indiana, in 1884. Two 
children were born to them, Cleve, now a lad in his teens; and Nellie, 
a little four year old girl that was drowned in Blue river, in 1894. 

Mrs Trimble died in-llX)2 and September 17, 11IU3. Mr. Trimble 
married Miss Louisa Bradford of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. One son, Wm. 
Jan was boin to them Mr. Trimble runs a r istaurant at Milford and 
is doing a good business. He has been a member of the school board of 
Milford for nine consecutive years. Was charter member of I. O. O. 
F. of Beaver Crossing. 

GEO. D. THOMAS 

A Seward born boy that is forging to the front, came to the light 
of life December, 6 1873. Educated in the Seward Schools. George 
like all the family is an expert in instrumental music and hundreds of 
times has the people of Seward enjoyed the sweet strains of music of 
the Thomas band. George was married April 2, 1901, to Miss Emma 
S. Wetz, an Illinois girl that was born June 23, 1875. They have one 
little daughter, Thelma Olline. 

Mr. Thonuis is engaged in the manufacture of soda water and is 
doing a large business. He controls and runs the Opera house and is 
owner of a large business block at Madison, Nebraska, including the 
Opera house there. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 173 

WILLIAM J. THOMPSON 

One of the very early pioneers of the county and a man of mark in 
the development of this region. Was born in the County Donegal 
north of Ireland, of Scotch ancestry in 1824. He came to Philadelphia 
in 1846, and enlisted in our navy for service in the Mexican war, and 
served nearly four years. He served on the Princeton and the ship pa- 
trolled the seas, capturing privateers and smugglers. There were no 
naval battles during that war. 

He married Miss Hilliard also of Scotch parentage from his native 
home, in 18r)0, at Alleghany (Mty, Pennsylvania. The young people 
naturally drifted westward and in 1854, we find them at Galena, Illinois, 
and at Nebraska City, in 1859, where the author formed his acquaint- 
ance in 1850. Mr. Thompson took a claim on Wilson creek eight miles 
west of the city, where he resided until the removal to Seward county, 
in \Sii'^. In 1862 he opened his ranch on Walnut creek in the western 
part of what is now "K" precinct. Could we follow all the incidents 
of the ranch life for ten years it would fill a volume ot most interesting 
matter, many things tragic, many things ludicrous and otheis piithetic. 
That old ranch where so many thousands of pilgrims and freighters 
camped and passed would make an ideal spot to found a romance of 
thrilling interest. When, the great U. P. R. R. had reached out as far 
as Grand Island, Mr. Thompson found his occupation gone, and in 
1873 he bought the mill property at Beaver Crossing. 

There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Thompson six children. Two 
died in infancy ; one being laid to rest in the Illinois home and one at 
Walnut creek. Letitia, the oldest child to reach mature years, mar- 
ried in 1887 and died in 1890. B. Franklin, now at Beaver Crossing ; 
Margaret E. of Crete and William J. Mr. and Mrs. Thomnson were 
both l)rought up in the Presbyterian church and remained members of 
it until they united with the Congregational church at Beaver Cross- 
ing. Mr. Thompson was a very energetic and enterprising man and 
did much in building up this county. He made many valual)le im- 
provements at the home place and at other points in the west. Was 
elected in 1865 one of the county commissioners and assisted in the 
county organization and did his work so well that he was again elected 
without opposition in 1867. In 1872 he was elected member ot the leg- 
islature but resigned on account of other pressing duties. Mr. Thomp- 
son was rather eratic in his make-up but was whole souled, genial and 
kind, a good true friend and good neighbor. His good wife has just 
passed the four score years. From childhood, Mrs. Thompson has been 
a most faithful Christian lady and during all the trying years of fron- 
tier life, she clung close to the cross and with all the energy and zeal 
of a noble and true Christian mother, she taught her children the value 
of christian Character. Mr. Thompson died, July 26, 1895, at his home 
in Beaver Crossing. 



174 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

PROFESSOR MARGARET E. THOMPSON 

This "child of the prairies, " as she calls herself, was born upon our 
own rich Nebraska soil, ,June 4. 1861, near Nebraska City. She was 
truly a child of the wilderness, and her childhood days were spent 
amidst the exciting environments of the old ranch home, at Walnut 
creek in Seward county, where her parents came when she was less 
than two years old. Here at an outpost of civilization the child grew 
to womanhood. In the earlier years there were no schools, but it 
chanced that an intelligent young lady came to the wilderness as an 
advance guard of education and civilization, and her services were en- 
gaged by Mr. Thom|)son to teach his children in the criide frontier 
home. This was Miss Agnes Henderson, now Mrs. Rollin Shepard, of 
York County. Here Maggie (as we all loved to call her) received her 
first ideas of the great world in which she was destined to act such an 
important part as an educator. If her educational opportunities seemed 
small and poor, there was one great book open to her. Her young life 
was in the midst of a moving panorama. There were countless thous- 
ands of emigrants and freighters passing her home and her keen eyes 
could scrutinize humanity in all its phases and her plastic mind no 
don])t received impressions that helped her on to victory. The crude 
frontier schools soon came and gave her some opportunities and in IfSTT 
she began her career as teacher in the Warner district near the Filniore 
county line. 

In the autumn of 1877, she commenced her course of study at Crete 
in the preparatory department of Doane college. By perserverance 
and determined industry, working her way by teaching in the country 
schools, she graduated from Doane college in the Class of 1886, with 
high honors, when she was immediately elected Principal of the 
women's department and instructor in mathematics. In 1892 she was 
granted a leave of absence, to visit eastern colleges. She spent the 
summer in study at Harvard university and the four succeeding months 
in visiting other New England colleges. During these years she was 
taking i)ost-graduate work in the Qniversitv of Nebraska, where she 
received the degree of A. M. in 1897. She also studied in the Chicago 
university during the summers of 1897, 1898 and 1899. In 1897, she 
was appointed Professor of English literature in Doane college. She 
has l)een connected with that institution as Principal Instructor and 
Professor during the past eighteeji years. Young men and women of 
Nebraska please learn from Miss Thompson what you may accomplish 
if j'ou will but trj'. 

FRANK B. TIPTON 

An Illinois boy born at Augusta, September 1, 1857, where he grew 
up, and became a stenographer. He came to Seward county in 1885, 
and we find the young man driving the qnill as court reporter for 
Judge Norval. He married Miss Harriette L. Jones May 18, 1887, at 
Seward, Nebraska. She was a daughter of Claudius Jones, born May 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 175 

15, 1866, at Chicago, Illinois. They have three children, viz : Claudius, 
Frank B. , Jr. , and Harriette E. 

Mr. Tipton spent some years at Seattle, Washington, but has re- 
turned to his first love, where he interests himself in caring for his 
flock of fine blooded chickens. White Leghorns is his specialty and his 
henery shows some of the best specimens in the country. He sold one 
young cockerel at the St. Louis Exposition for one hundred dollars. 

JOHN D. TROYER 

A gentleman who is largely interested in the honey bee, being the 
owner of quite a respectable apiary in Milford, was an Ohio boy. Was 
born September 7, 1S33, in Holmes county, where he grew to manhood. 
.At twenty-four after his marriage to Miss Catherine Egly. he moved to 
Indiana. Miss Egly was a native of Stark Cuunty, Ohio, born in 1837. 

They are the parents of eleven children, nine yet living, viz: 
Daniel J., Mary, now Mrs. A. M. Garber ; Annie, now Mrs. C. J. 
Mizer, Lydia, now Mrs. Chas. Brown ; Joseph, Emma, now Mrs. E. B. 
Whitney, who died August 4, 1888, David, Alice, now Mrs. J. Young; 
(the wife and husband killed by the Boxers in China. They were 
missionaries, and were killed July 16, 1900). Ellen, now Mrs. C. J. 
Shaw; Martha, and John E. , yet at home with the old people. Mr. 
Troyer came to Plattsmouth in 188(), where he worked in the R. R. 
.shops two years and then in 1888 came to Milford where he has followed 
his trade as carpenter and builder. Their church relations ai-e with the 
Amish Menonites. 

FRANKLIN J. UNDERHILL 

Is one of the lads that just missed being a Nebraska born boy, but 
it was no fault of his. He got here just as soon as po.ssible. He was 
born at Oquaka, Illinois, Febiuarv 16, 1874, and was brought to Se- 
ward in 1876. Frank took to medicine as a duck takes to water and 
commenced to learn the profession as Pharmacist when sixteen and has 
been engaged in that line during all his active life. We take it for 
granted that Frank understands his business. 

The young man in his perambulations strayed away to Falls City 
and found Miss Lena jNIiller and she consented to be his bride and they 
were married May 36. 1897, at Lincoln, Neliraska. She was born July 
19, 1874, at Falls City, Nebraska. Frank belongs to the Highlanders. 
The church home is with the Missionary Baptists. Mr. Underhill lo- 
cated in Tamora in 1902. and established a neat and tasty drug store 
that the village and community should feel proud of. 

PHILIP UNITT 

The fat and jolly Englishman who had just one English sovereign 
in his pocket when he landed at New York and who has grown to be a 
man of affairs. Was born in merry old England. Doudley Stafford.shire, 
September 3, 1849. He saw the bright star in the west, in 1868, and 



176 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



there was no use talking, Phil^was coming to America and he got here, 
whether in one ship or two he did not say. He sought work and found 
it in Pennsylvania, but soon drifted to Baltimore, where he engaged in 
business for fifteen months when he found Miss Mary A. (iill, an En- 
glish girl and they were married. February 13. 1870. Soon the young 




Residence of Phillip Unitt 



couple were siezed with a violent attack of western fever and in March 
1873, they found Lincoln and as the new railroad had just reached 
Seward, Phil had to go as far as the cars would take him and thus 
Seward county gained her greatest stockman. Mr. Unitt commenced 
his Seward career in a little seven by nine meat market. 

Mr. and Mrs. Unitt have five liv^ig children, viz: Charles. Ar- 
thur, Vincent, W. Garfield and Mattie. He is a member of A. F. and 
A. M. and I. O. O. F. and member of the encampment. He now owns 
nine hundred and twenty acres of well improved farms. He owns one 
of the finest residences in Seward County, and a barn that is like a 
palace. He frequently has a thousand head of cattle and so many hogs 
that he can't count them. Is always good natured and full of life . 



HENRY VANDERHOOF 
A Michigan boy, born among the stumps of the old pine tree state 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



177 



in Berion County, May 2, 1848. He spent his youth in school and dig- 
ging among the stumps until between fifteen and sixteen years he enlisted 
in the 12th Michigan Volunteer Infantry. He did not get a chance to 
smell much burnt powder, as his enlistment was in 1864. Henry found 
his way to Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1872. He spent three years traveling 




Henry Vanderhoof 

for water supplies. He located in Sew&rd, in 1875, where he engaged 
in the grain, stock and windmill trade. Then he was in the hardware 
trade for a time. In 1878, January 28th, he married Miss Mercy A. 
Derby, at Utica. She was a daughter of Hon. Geo. A. Derby and was 
born March 25, 1851, in Licking County, Ohio. Foiu- children were 
born to them, viz: Hallie D. , now deceased; Thomas J.. Don W. , and 
Vesta M. 

Mr. Vanderhoof was in the genera) merchandise business in York 
in 188H, but soon returned to Seward and opened a land office where he 
has taken a leading part in that business. He belongs to the I. O. O. 
F. and encampment, is also a member of the G. A. R. 



SYRENUS VANANDEL 

Was born in Ulster County, New York, where they raise a full 

crop of stone every year for the boys to harvest. He came to light 

July 14, 1848. The old folks took the lad to Ohio to try the blue clay 

hills, but they halted but a short time and in 185G, we find the boy in 



178 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



St. Joseph, Missouri. Next he tried "bleeding" Kansas, but not yet 
satisfied we find him on the trail to Nebraska in 1868, where he tried 
Richardson County. But after a while he strayed up to the right place 
and located a homestead on section 20, in "I" precinct, April 12, 1870. 




Mrs. Henry Vanderhoof 



In 1884, he had tired of single blessedness and down at Lincoln he 
espied Miss Ida Schamp and they were married July loth. She was 
born in Iowa, but came to Nebraska in 1862. piloted by the venerable 
Rev. Peter Schamp. her father, when a yearling. She was born June 3, 
1861. 

They have five children, viz: Blanche, Cabe S., George W., John R. 
and Ida C. Since his removal here he rambled around in Wyoming for 
seven years but returned to his first love and is now fairly content and 
well he may be. He has a splendid home in a good locality. He is a 
member of the Knights of Maccabees. Church home is with the M. E. 
folks at Pleasant Dale. 



JAMES S. VRIENDERS 
Our marble cutter and general dealer in monuments, was born in 
Denmark, December 21, 1859, and came to Omaha in 1885, where he 
worked at his trade for seventeen years. June 27, 1887, he mai'ried 
Miss Henriette W. Humburg at Omaha. She was also born in Den- 
mark, June 6, 1860. They had five sons born to them. Victor died 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 179 

in infancy ; Alfred, Albert, Einar and Victor, the latter being named 
for the dead son. 

Mr. Vrieiiders came to Seward in 1!I02, and opened a shop and is 
carrying on the marble business. He is a member of the M. W. A. 
Church home is with the Lutheran pe(jple. 

WM. L. WATTS 

Away up in cold Minnesota, William was born March 15, 1868, 
in Steele County, but went to Indiana in infancy and was pretty good 
on the tramp when young so we find the lad in Seward County at five. 
Came to "N" precinct in 1873. Was fortunate enough to make a bar- 
gain with Miss Jennie Kenedy and was married at York, Nebraska, 
June 25, 1901. Jennie was Vjorn at Omaha, March 4, 18(59. She is one 
of the best products of our Nebraska. The young couple have a nice 
home in Goehner, where Mr. Watts is engaged in the windmill and 
pump business. 

JOHN H. WATERMAN 

Born in Hubard, Ohio, March 8, 184(i. Remained at the old home 
until June, 1863, when only a lad of seventeen he enlisted in the 2nd 
Ohio heavy artillery in the 23rd Army Corps, under General Cox. Was 
through Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. The command was on duty 
guarding supply lines principally, served to the end of the war. When 
discharged the environments of "the old home had lost their charms and 
the restless youth pushed for the west, and in 1866 we tind him on the 
wild prairies of Harrison County, Iowa, yet the western star shone so 
brightly in his path he followed on and in 1870 he became a home- 
steader at Beaver Crossing. Here he married Miss Lydia M. Salnave. 
This marriage was performed by old Uncle Dan Millspaw and the li- 
cense was issued by Judge Henry Wortendyke, March 26, 1870. 

There were four children, viz: Grace, died at fourteen; Royal D. , 
now a minister of the gospel and Rena and Lena twins, jet at home. 
Mr. Waterman farmed on the homestead twelve years, when in 1892 he 
started the publication of the Review. In April, 1897, he sold it to De- 
wit Egar and it was under the editorial management of E. M. Overman 
for three years when Mr. Waterman bought it and it has run under his 
management until he sold it the winter of 1905. Mr. Waterman was 
appointed postmaster in 1898. Mr. Waterman has been through all 
these years a much respected and worthy citizen and performed well his 
part in laying these foundations. 

WILLIAM H. WAIT 

An Ohio boy that got tired of the blue clay hills and took Greeley's 
advice and struck for the west. Mr. Wait was born in Clermont 
County September 29, 1845. He not only found a good county in Sep- 
tember, 1873. but he soon found a wife, married Mrs. Elsie S. Pitt, 



180 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

July 24, 1876, in Seward. She was an Indiana girl that came to this 
frontier with her parents in 1863. She was born Ma\^ 10, 1850. They 
have seven children, viz: Frederick H. , Lovina, now Mrs. J. Lunney ; 
Simon A., Rhoda L., now Mrs. H. Davis; Thomas Z. , Elisabeth M. 
and Edward W. 

Mr. Wait served in the 53d Ohio Regiment in Company H and also 
in Company F 195th Ohio and was in the struggles at Harpers Ferry, 
Winchester and Old Town and many skirmishes. He ate plenty of hard ' 
tack and snielled powder but got no scratch. He is now employed at 
the Ruby elevator. Mr. 'vVait is a stone mason by trade and helped lay 
many of the first foundations at Seward. One among them being the 
first old brick school house and the old Tishue block and others. 

WILSON S. WALLICK 

Another Ohio lad born among the blue clay hills of Franklin County 
October 31, 1841. When two years old his parents thought they would 
try the land of muddy roads and located in old Fulton County, Illinois, 
where Wilson giubbed, piled and burnt brush and went to school and 
in due time he found Miss Mary E. Yates and January 30, 1880, they 
were married at Independence, Kansas. She was a Fulton County girl 
born July 11, 1859. 

They have five children, viz: Ada M., now Mrs. H. Wimberley ; 
Flora B., Aita E., Albert R., and Elgin S. The family came to "F" 
precinct in 1876 and bought school land on section 16. For some years 
they have rented the farm and reside in Tamora. Mr. Wallick belongs 
to the M. W. A. and W. O. W. Church home is with the Presbyterians. 

MYRON W. WARNER 

Was another of those New York lads that found his way to Ne- 
braska while both he and the state were young. Born in Onondaga 
County. March 14, 1847. Was educated at Hamilton, New York, and 
came to Seward County in 1870. In 1871 he began teaching and fol- 
lowed that vocation in Seward and Saline Counties 

In 1883 was elected superintendent of Public Instruction, was re- 
elected for the second term and made a good record. While at Seward 
he captured Miss Susie Jobs. They were married in 1886. They have 
four children all yet at home, viz : Gertrude, Charles, Ada and Esther. 
Some years ago Mr. Warner moved to California but he tired of the 
land of flowers and tourists and returned to his first love and has for 
over sixteen years held the honorable position of cashier of the bank at 
Beaver Crossing, Nebraska. 

WILLIAM A. WALTER 

One of Sewai'd's carpenters and builders for the past twenty years. 

Was born January 31, 1852, in Columbia County in the old Keystone 

state where they raise coal, pump oil and melt iron and raise good boys 

and girls. The lad went to the western prairies at seven and landed at 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 181 

Alledo, Illinois, where he grew to manhood. In ]883, he landed at 
Seward, and January 16th was married to Miss Olive Purdam, an 
Illinois girl that was born in Mercer county, July 18, 1861. 

They have one little daughter, Dorothy Vivian, born at Corning, 
Iowa. Mr. Walter is a member of the M. W. A. and of the Court of 
Honor. Church home is with the M. E. people. 

. PROF. FRED C. WILLIAMS 

A Hoosier boy, born at Rochester, Indiana. He went through the 
public schools at Franklin. He came to Nebraska while yet a lad and 
graduated in the High schools of Columbus, Nebraska, in the class of 
189(3 and in the University in the class of 1900 and received the degree 
of B. C. Then taught in the High School of Columbus one year, was 
Principal of Syracuse, Nebraska, schools one year, taught one year at 
Seward and was elected Superintendent of our City schools in 1902 
which position he yet holds. 

The Professor married a Nebraska girl. Miss A. I. Whiting, June 10, 
1903, at Lincoln. She is a native of Fairbury. He is a member of a 
College fraternity of Beta Theta Pa. Is a member of the Baptist church 
but now affiliates with the Congregational church of Seward. 

Since the above was written Professor and IMrs. Williams have had 
come to bless their home, a daughter, Rosanna Brackett, born January 
6, 1905. The Professor is a member of the I. O. O. F. 

WILLIAM S. WILLIAMS 

One of the most familiar figures among the business men of Seward 
for nearly thirty years, was English born. He first saw the light at 
Summersetshire, England, April 1, 1850, and was transplanted to our soil 
when a lad of eight. He lived in Wisconsin with his parents until he 
was twenty, when he landed at Lincoln and at Seward in 1875, and 
was in the employ of Keefer and Lindly in the implement trade. Some- 
time later he became partner with Ole Whitcomb in the livery business 
and was interested in that business for twelve years. 

It took him a long time to find his girl, but he found her and was 
married to Miss Edith Purdam of Seward, June 12, 1901. Mrs. Wil- 
liams was an Illinois girl that came to Seward County with her parents 
about twenty years ago. Born in 1809. 

Mr. Williams has for many years been engaged in buying and sell- 
ing horses. Has for a quarter of a century had an important part with 
our Agricultural Society and held many important positions in the so- 
ciety. He is now Chairman of the County Board of Supervisors. 

Seal, as we all call him, is an all-around good and valuable citizen. 
Has a membership in the Modern Woodman. 

PROF. GEORGE WELLER 

Principal of the Lutheran Normal Seminary of Seward for ten 
yers. Was born in the city of New Orleaps in 18fO. Shortly after the 



182 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



war closed and during the re-construction period his parents moved to 
New York City and when George was a lad of seven summers they 
moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the boy received training in the 
parochial school and at fourteen he entered Concordia College and grad- 
uated at twenty, then he took a thelogical course at the Lutheran The- 
ological College at St. Louis. Then the young man came to Seward 
County in 1882 and began his ministerial career at Marysville, where 
he served the Church twelve years and then was elected to the princi- 
palship of the new institution where he has done faithful and valuable 
work to this date. The Professor formed the acquaintance and married 
Miss Clara Eirick in 1882 and to their union have been born eight 
bright children all of whom make their home with their parents, 
although John follows teaching of late. 

Their names are John, Hulda, George, Elsie, Helen, Annie, Paul 
and Raymond. They have a nice home in the college addition to 
Seward. 




Hon. Henry H. Wilson 

An Ohio lad that found the western trail at seventeen and when 
transplanted on the fertile soil of Nebraska began a vigorous growth 
and today he is one of Nebraska's prominent bari.sters. Henry was born 
in old Sandusky County, where the white caps of Lake Erie lash the 
shore, January 1, 1854. 

In 1871 he was a farmer boy in Saunders County and in 1873 we find 
him at our state university, where he graduated in the class of 1878 
with honors. When he became identified with the people of Seward as 
principal of the high school, where his good work for two years caused 
his name to be well remembered by a great host of friends. In 1881, 
he had completed his law studies sufficiently to be almitted to practice 
in all the courts of Nebraska. In 1895, he became Grand Master of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 183 

the Masonic Fraternity in Nebraska. He is a thirty-third degree Mason. 
Has held the honored position as a lecturer on law in the university for 
fifteen years last past. 

Found his helpmeet in Miss Emma Parks and was married, June 22, 

1882, at Lincoln. She was an Iowa girl born at Agency City, June 23, 
1856. They have five children, viz: Henry P., who died December 9, 

1883, Helen, Edith, Ralph P. and vValter F. In 1902 Mr. Wilson was a 
prominent candidate before the Republican convention for Governor. 
Mr. Wilson is one of the presidential electors for Nebraska and was 
chosen president of the electoral college. 

CHARLES H. WERTMAN 

Was a native of Lee County, Illinois, born January 9, 1852. He 
was raised on the banks of that beautiful Rock river near Dixon and 
there he found Miss Sarah C. , daughter of J. B, Courtright and they 
were married, June 13, 1876, at the old home of the Courtrights. She 
was a Dixon girl, born October 27, 1853. They have five children, viz: 
Harry J., a physician at Milford ; Thomas H. , a pharmacist at Seward ; 
Clarence C. , Mary C. and Willard L. 

They came to the present home in section 13 in '"N" town in 
March, 1884. Mr. Wertman is a farmer and stockman. Is a member 
of M. W. A. and Maccabees. Church home is with M. E. people at 
Milford. 

JACOB A. WILSEY 

Came from the land of milk and cheese in Columbia County, New 
York, where the boys are born with a milk bucket in one hand and 
milk stool in the other. He came to life and light August 21, 1828, He 
was raised among the rocky hills of two states New York and Pennsyl- 
vania. He and Miss Alia M. Kilmer were married at Hide Park, 
Pennsylvania, June 15, 1853, and June 15, 1903, there was a beautiful 
golden wedding at the Wilsey home in west "O" precinct. Mrs. Wil- 
sey was born, October 17, 1833, in the old Keystone state. They have 
eight children, viz: Douglass L. , Walter A.. Jerman L., Alia B. , now 
dead; Katy M., Walker, Minnie D. , Connelly, Frank J. and Dallye B. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wilsey came to the present home in the spring of 
1868, and were among the first of the noble band of pioneers to lay 
foundations in this wilderness and we rejoice with their host of friends 
that it is given them to yet live to see the waste places made glad and 
the wilderness transformed into a land of beautiful homes. Long live 
our old friends the Wilseys. Their church home is with the Evangel- 
ical people. On coming to Seward County he resided at Camden where 
he worked in both grist mill and saw mill. It was there he sawed the 
lumber for his house in "West O, '" out of native timber. After mov- 
ing there he worked at the carpenter trade, He helped build the mill 
at West Mills. 




The J. A. Wilsey Golden Wedding 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 185 

HENRY WATSON 

Born at Hilsdale, Michigan. December 2, 1854. Parents moved to 
Dnbuiine Countv. Iowa, when Henry was a babe. There he grew to 
manhood and received his education. In 1873, he came to Seward. 
Married Miss Mertie Darwin, a young lady from Michigan, where she 
was born in IHl'S. The marriage occurred in 1894. In 1897, she died 
leaving an infant child which in a few weeks followed her to the grave 
and the bereaved husband and father was left to "tread the wine press 
alone. ' ' 

Mr. Watson is an honored member of the Maccabees order and is 
sargeant. He is a man of industry and strict integrity and has the 
respect of all who know him. 

ALLEN J. WEAVER 
One of the go-ahead business men of Milford, who came there when 
a Doy and worked for wages for years in the windmill and pump busi- 
ness and had the grit to stick close to his business until he became sole 
proprietor of the present flourishing windmill and pumphouse, in 1903. 
' Mr. Weaver was born in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, April 
12, 1867. Educated in the common schools of his native community, 
and married in 1890, to Miss Ruth A. Haverstock, of Milford, who came 
from Larporte, Indiana, in childho<jd with her parents. Two children 
bless the home, Daniel A. and Harriet E. Mr. Weaver came to Milford 
in 1886. Is a member of the Congregational church and belongs to the 
A. O. U. W. and is financier of the Maccabees. 

HENRY C. WICKHAN 

Here was a lad who took a curious road from his old Iowa home to 
reach Neliraksa. Born in Johnson County, in 1844, but the old folks 
went to Henderson County, Illinois while Henry was a babe, so he was 
not to blame. Was educated there and strange to say took the eastern 
trail and landed in the Hoosier state and remained four years, but soon 
caught sight of the star of Empire and the east could no longer hold 
him. Next we find the lad driving an ox team for the government on 
the Overland trail. Then he has all the exciting experiences of a range 
rider on the plains for twelve years. The story of his ventures is too 
long for us to write. In 1890, came to Milford and became an auc- 
tioneer of wide repute. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and of the 
Woodman of America. 

Mr. Wickhan claims to have assisted in building the first bridge on 
the Loup river as he journeyed to Montana in 1886. Married Miss 
Mattie Bush in 1886. Three children were born to them, Chai'les, Jessie 
M. , died August 17, 1891, and Mary G. at home. 

BAYARD WICKERSHAM 
One of oui old soldier boys, born in Ohio, west township, Columbia 
County, September 21, 1839. He tread the blue clay hills till the war 



186 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

came on. In 1861, June 16th, he married Miss Elizabeth Orr, at East 
Rochester, Ohio. She was born August 3, 1844, at New Lynn township 
Chester County, Pennsylvania. They have six children, viz: Lewis B , 
Amelia H. , Lydia C. , Allen M. , Walter B. and Ada M. Lewis B. died 
January 22, 1898. 

Mr. Wickersham enlisted September 3, 1864. in Company I. , 178 
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was in the last battle of Nashville. Was dis- 
charged at Charlotte, North Carolina, June 28, 1865. Came to Seward 
County, in 1889, and settled on southwest quarter section 14 in "G" 
town, where he has a very desirable and valuable farm. 

JOHN A. WHITTER 

Born in Fulton County, Pennsylvania, in 1868. When a babe in 
1870, his parents came to Filmore County, Nebraska, where the child 
grew to manhood and received his education and learned his trade In 
1900, came to Beaver Crossing and bought the McWilliaras shop, where 
he is conducting a general blacksmithing business. We had the plea- 
sure of examining some very fine work done in his shop on the Evans 
well machine. 

Mr. Whitter is a public spirited man of enterprise. He is Senior 
Deacon in the A. F. and A. M., is member of I. O. O, F. also Vice 
Grand, is member of Ben Hiir order and has the character of "Ben 
Hur. " Was a soldier in the Spanish American war. Was at Manilla 
sixteen months with Nebraska 1st regiment and helped to take the 
city. Was in many close (juarters and in many engagements with the 
treacherous natives. Part of the time was in Moro Island and saw 
some tough times. Was promoted from the ranks to office of Corporal, 
in 1898. John came home with a good record. Is a member of the 
Christian church. 

WILLIAM H. WHITENOCK 

Happened to be born in the Hoosier state but did not stay there 
very long. Had somehow found his way to Buchannan County, Iowa, 
where he spent his youthful days. Was born February 21, 1855, and 
finally landed at Milford in 1887. On his thirty-first birthday February 
21, 1886, he captured a Milford girl. Miss Emma Comberr, on her birth- 
day, February 2, 1866. She was born in cool Minnesota. There have 
been born to them six children, viz : Clara M. , now Mrs. Wm. Hurt ; 
William H., John F. , Etha, died in infancy, Maggie and Edith. Mr. 
Whitenock is at this time handling poultry and eggs and resides seven 
miles east of Seward. 

JOHN WARDSBY 

Born at North Burton in Yorkshire, England in 1844, March 6th. 
His ancestry was of the grand old Scottish blood. There he remained 
until middle age but as soon as possible he turned his face toward the 
new world and came with his family to Nebraska in 1882, where larger 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



187 



and better opportunities awaited him. He lived for a time in Seward, 
also Germantown and in 1886, he located in "K" i^recinct, where he 
still resides. Was married in his native home to Miss Anna Rivis in 
1869. Six children were boi-n to them, one an infant was laid away at 
the old home, Margaret, now Mrs. Ed Gibbs ; Sarah, was Mrs. Boyes 
who died six years ago; Elizabeth, now Mrs. Rilibilet; Isabel, now Mrs. 
Aug. Miller, and Polly now Mrs. L. Fattien. The good old people have 
for many years belonged to the M. E. church. Mr. Wardsby has been a 
farmer and stock raiser about all his years in Nebraska. The old people 
have acted well their part in life and are fully entitled to the kindest 
regards of their many friends. 




Henry Wortendyke 

One of the earliest settlers near Milford and one of the leading and 
successful men of the county. Was born April 6, 1828, in Ontario 
County, Xew York. While a young lad his parents moved to Genesee 
County. In 1851 he got his eye fixed upon the Star of Empire and fol- 
lowed it to Chicago. While there he secured a position with the gov- 
ernment and was employed to help locate a national road in Minnesota 
Territoiy from St. Paul to Crow Wing, also one from St. Paul to Still- 
water. After this service he returned to Chicago and for several years 
was engaged in a merchantile house. Then we find him at Dixon, Illi- 
nois, selling goods for a couple of years, when that star again attracted 
his eye and this time it led him to Nebraska and he settled on a farm 



188 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

in Cass County near Weeping Water. Three years later, he canght the 
gold fever and went to the mountains where his efforts were well re- 
warded. He found some gold. 

In 1866, he returned to Nebraska and took a homestead near the new 
town of Milford. He helped to build the first mill at Milford and later 
the one at Wests Mills on the West Blue. Was fortunate in finding a 
brave young widow lady, who had the nerve to take Greeley's advice, 
"Come west and get a homestead. " Mrs. Emely J. Badgley and he 
were married in 1867. To the union were born three children, two of 
whom yet live in Seward County, Mrs. Diantha Bacon of Ruby and 
John O. now of Ulysses. Henry J. died at the age of fifteen. 




Mrs. Emely J. Wortendyke 

Mr. Wortendyke was"elected Probatejudge in"1868, and was consid- 
ered a good, faithful officer. He was a wide-awake energetic business 
man, always ready and willing to help enterprises that would help his 
community or county and was very charitably inclined. He and his 
noble wife helped to organize the M. E. church at Milford and he re- 
mained a valuable member while he lived and his widowed wife is now 
a member of the official ))oard of the church. About fifteen years ago 
Mr. and Mrs W. moved to Lincoln on account of some business rela- 
tions where they resided for nine years, but they finally returned to 



HISTORY OP SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



189 



their first love and they have for many years made Milford the family 
home. During the awful heated term of 1901, Mr. Wortendyke was ov- 
ercome by the heat and this caused his death. In his death the church 
lost one of its best members, the community one of its noblest citizens. 
Mrs. Wortendyke still lives at the old home in Milford and spends her 
declining years in the Master's service. 

Miss Emely J. Brown was born at Fayetteville, Brown County, 
Ohio. April 2, 1838. In 1851 with her parents she had a long pleasui'e 
ride overland to Pike County, Illinois. She was married in 1859 to 
David J. Badgley. One son was born to them, Willis. In 1861, Mr. 
Badgle}' enlisted and was killed in the service. In 1864 the young widow 
and little .son came to Nebraska with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel 
Brown and located temporarily near Nebraska City. In the spring the 
family all came to Seward County and Mrs. Badgley took a homestead 
just east of Milford. Her father took his homestead two miles north of 
Milford. Mrs. Badgley had a dugout built for her first residence where 
she and Willis lived happily, .lust like the rest of the neighbors. Octo- 
ber 26, 1867, she married Judge Henry Wortendyke. (See his biography 
preceding. ) She now lives in the village of Milford and spends her 
time pleasantly in church and charitable work. 





Stites Wooley 

Came pretty near being an ancient Nebraskan as he came to Ne- 
braska City in 1855, from Cincinnati, where he was born in 1807. He 
learned the trade of brick mason and there worked on the wails of the 



1^0 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



city till his removal to Nebraska. Was married in 1839, to Miss Mary 
A. Stevenson, a lady of English birth. She was born at London in 1811. 
Mr. Wooley laid many of the first foundations of Nebraska City. His 
first work was on the walls of the First M. E. church there and when 
the walls were near completion a gale{such as we have occasionally) blew 
the walls down and Mr. Wooley went with the brick and with a brick 
in one hand which struck him in the forehead, he was landed among the 
debris just by the gate of kingdom come, but he had more brick to lay 
and he didn't enter the gate although it was ajar for him. He returned 
to his native city got the wife and babies together and brought them 
west when he rebuilt those walls. He also built the first Presbyterian 
church, the Methodist Protestant and the Catholic churches. 




Mrs. Stites Wooley 

He took a homestead on section 15, town 11, range 3 east, near Sew- 
ard's future site in 1864, but could not occupy it till the year 1865. He 
laid the first bricks in the new town, the foundation of the First Pres- 
byterian church ; next work was on the old printing otiice on Jackson 
Avenue, yet standing and occupied as a carpenter shop. Later he built 
a large store building for Joel Tishue. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Wooley were born eight children, four boys and 
four daughters, viz : Alfred, died in infancy, another died in early in- 
fancy, Amelia, now Mrs. S. C. Ross, Oliver, Henry, and Frederic. Mr. 
and Mrs. Wooley were veiy efficient and worthy members of the Pres- 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



191 



byterian church and helped to organize the church at Seward. Mr. 
Wooley died December 10, 1887, and hia good wife followed him Janu- 
ary 10, 1899. Full of labors and full of years they have gone to rest. 

BIRNEY S. WISE 

Who has lived in only thirteen states. Was a Michigan boy born at 
Oakland, December 3, 1846. Somehow in his rambles he found the 
right girl. Miss Ida Green, in old Stevenson County, Illinois, at the 
little old town of Davis, near the Pecatonica river. They were married 
at Freeport, July 14, 1875. They have two boys, Victor W. and Guy E. 

Mr. Wise was wise enough to look up a home in Seward County, 
nine miles southeast of Seward, before his marriage, coming in 1873 and 
returned to Illinois after his bird in 1875. He belongs to the A. O. U. 
W. Has sold the old home and got a better one near Pleasant Dale, 
where happiness reigns supreme. Mr. Wise is a .I'olly good fellow, but 
not half so good as his noble partner. They are valuable citizens. 




Horace Wolvin 

A prominent farmer and stockman of "E" precinct. Was born. 
May 31, 1851, in St. Clair County, Michigan. Spent three of his young 
years in the state of New York, when he returned to his native state 
where he married Miss Francis M. Miller, November 28, 1876, in Oak 



192 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



land County. The young folks caught sight of the bright star in the 
west and followed it in 18T7 to Seward County. They bought rail road 
land at $7 per acre and although they have used it all these years they 
think it might be sold for more money now. We think so to Four 
children now bless the home, viz : Arthur C. , Grace, Nina and Ray- 
mond. Four died in infancy. 




Mrs. Horace Wolvin 

Mr. Wolvin is a great admirer of red pigs and has a fine herd of 
them. He is a Modern Woodman and also belongs to the Modern Bro- 
therhood and Royal Neighbors. Mrs. Wolvin is a member of the Bap- 
tist church. They have one of the Seward County beautiful homes on 
state road three miles east of Utica. 



WILLIAM H. F. WORTHMAN 
One of our most enterprising contractors and builders. Was born in 
Germany, Novemer 27, 1845. Landed in New York, May 6, 1862 Had 
learned the masons trade in the Fatherland. Located in Sioux County. 
Wisconsin. He spent much time at his. trade in Chicago. Was married 
in June, 1807, to Miss Dora Kruse. She was born in Germany, June 20, 
1851 and came to this country in 1863. Five children were born to them, 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 193 

viz : William, Augusta, Edward, Lewis and Henry. Mr. and Mrs. 
Worthraan are members of the Lutheran church at Seward. He is a 
wide-awake business man, not only a contractor and builder, but is 
largely interested in the manufacture of brick a mile below Seward 
where he and his son have a large plant and do an extensive business. 

Mrs. Worthman passed away in the winter of 1905. Worthman and 
Son have lately erected a new draw brick kiln described on another 
page. 

FREDERICK RICE WOOLEY 

A pioneer boy in Nebraska and also of Seward County. Was born 
at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1848. December 23d. His parents were among 
the very early settlers at Nebraska City, making their home there in 
1856. There in that frontier town Fred spent his boyhood days. In 
1863, while yet only a lad of fifteen, he drove a freight team to the 
mountains. In 1866, he helped cut and stack a great lot of hay on con- 
tract in Kansas. Made his first visit to this locality in the autumn of 
1864 and participated in the first election held in the county. They 
woiild not let the kid vote but they let him sit in the front end of his 
father's covered wagon and hold the ballot box, (a cigar box), while 
the men did the voting. Tn 1865 the family located on section 15, Gr 
town, and this became the boy's home where he helped open the farm. 

He homesteaded his farm, December 23, 1869, the day he became 
twenty-one. Married Miss Celia Burkman. February 25, 1873. They 
are the parents of nine children as follows : Phil, now of Bighorn val- 
ley, Ora, Clara, now deceased, Herbert, Iva, Ethel, Cecil, Floyd and 
Victor. Mr. Wooley improved his farm and made it his home for many 
years, later he became interested in the brick business with his father, 
and for the last eight years has been in the coal trade. Some years ago 
he put up a nice brick block on the west side of the square. 

Mr. Wooley has seen all sides of pioneer life in Nebraska and on the 
plains. He has many a time chased cattle through the tall grass and 
weeds, bare footed, slept out on the prairie nignts and cooked his dinner 
over a cow chip fire. He helped at the fording Blue river of the first 
train that ever crossed at Milford when the river was tollerably high and 
Fred had to ride a refractory steer over the current. The company had 
been met by that prince of frontiersman, J. L. Davison, who piloted 
them to his ranch and across the untrodden wilderness of prairie to the 
spot where Milford now stands. The ford is about half way beween the 
bridge and the mill. This was at the opening of the steam wagon road, 
which became noted as a cut off road across the plains. 

JACOB WEBER 

Down among the rocks and hills of old Erie County, New York, 
Jacob was born May 30, 1842. He played on the pebbly beach of Lake 
Erie, worked on the stumpy old farm and attended school in the little 



194 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

red school house. Jacob was an enterprising lad and at twenty-two he 
invaded Canada, and captured another prize for Uncle Sam. 

At Fort Erie right under the frowning guns, he captured Miss Bar- 
bara Neft', September 13, 1864. She was a Canadian girl born in Wel- 
land County, October 3, 1845. They had nine children as follows. 
Otto T., Willard M., Charles F., Alonzo J., Sarah M., now Mrs. A. C. 
Bennett; Alice F., Fidelia, now dead; William C, and Cora I., now 
dead. The family came west in 1866 and settled in Marshall County, 
Iowa, and came to Seward County in 1884 and bought the Foreman 
farm in "J" precinct, which they have improved and made beautiful 
and valuable. 

CALVIN J. WRIGHT 

A large and enterprising stock farmer of "B" precinct, is one of Se- 
ward County's best builders. Was born in Portage County,' Ohio, in 1834. 
Was in his early manhood a merchant and later a photographer. He, like 
so many bright young men of that period, caught the western fever mov- 
ing to Marshall County, Indiana in 1861. Here during the war he was a 
detective officer for the government. Married Miss F.lizabeth Church, in 
Madison County, Iowa, in Winterset, January 1, 1856, and it the good 
old folks can come to an agreement there will be another wedding Jan- 
uary 1st next, provided the candidates live to see the happy day. There 
were born to them three children, viz: Edgar of Los Aangeles, Cali- 
fornia, Etta now Mrs. Terwilliger of Bee and G. M. Wright of Bee. 

Mr. Wright came to Seward County in 1879, and has improved a 
large farm near the town of Bee, where he has taken great pains in the 
production f)f fine hogs and cattle. Mr. Wright is among our most 
thorough going farmers and has pushed his business very successfully. 
Takes great interest in the improvement and advancement of the 
county. Always generous and kindhearted, full of life and energy. 
One thing shows to the credit of Mr. Wright is that while he is an un- 
compromising democrat, yet this strong republican county gave him a 
handsome majority for the state senate in the fall of 1886 and he proved 
one of the most able members that we have ever had to represent us in 
that body. Mr. Wright is a member of long standing in the noble order 
of Free and Accepted Masonry and has held many honorable i^ositions 
in that fraternity. 

ABRAHAM C. WRIGHT 
Came to Milford in 1883, and has built up a most pleasant home. 
He was an old timer in Nebraska having come to Rulo in 1860, and 
while sojourning there as a stranger his vote was badly wanted in a 
county seat contest and the proprietor of Rulo townsite was liberal and 
said. Abe, you go and vote with us and a deed of that lot will be made 
to you. So Abe voted and took the deed, but went back east for ten 
years ; when he happened at Table Rock and a fellow came to him and 
offered sixty dollars for the lot, and of course Abe made him a deed to 
the lot he had never seen. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 195 

Mr. Wright was born, May 1, 1838, at Qviincy, Illinois, but grew up 
in Clinton County, Iowa. Married Miss Celinda L. Walrod a native of 
Iowa. She was born October 1, 1845. Five children were born to them. 
Their son John was killed at the Milford mill in 1900, November 8th, 
Riley, Eva, now Mrs. Chas. Crick; Orr, wno died in 1884 and Webb. 
Mr. Wright could have bought of the best land in Richardson County, 
in 1860, at one dollar per acre, but he had not yet much faith in 
Nebraska. 




Nicholas Wullenwaber and Wife 

A German born lad that found the way to the United States when 
twelve years old to find a better home. Was born February 20, 1845 in 
Prussia. In 1869, we find the young man in Taswell County, Illinois 
where he found a girl from the Fatherland, Miss Hannah Shoemaker. 
Uncle Nick talked very nice to her and she consented to be his bride and 
they were married, February 7, 1869. She was born in Prussia, June 10, 
1848. They have six children, viz: Frederick N. , Sophia, Maria, now 
Mrs. D. Bramard ; Minnie, now Mrs. W. A. Bluukenship; Augusta and 
Bertha. 

Mr. Wullenwaber came to Seward County in 1876 and settled in 
"K" precinct, where he improved a model farm. Some years ago he 
moved to Seward and engaged in the implement trade but has now re- 
tired and is taking life easy, enjoying the fruits of a well spent life. 

Mr. Wullenwaber is rather a model citizen wide-awake, full of enter- 
prise. We wish we had ten thousand just like him. He is a member 



196 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



of the Modern Woodman. The church home of the family is with the 
Evangelical church. 

PHILIP WULLENWABER 

Another plucky German lad that crossed the deep sea at nine years 
of age. Was born April 20, 1849. His parents settled in Taswell 
County, Illinois in 1858. There Philip grew to manhood and married 
Miss Elsie Hendricks, November 30, 1872. She was a German girl that 
came from the old home in childhood, born July 21, 1849. 

They are the parents of nine children, viz: Philip P. N., who died 
near Seward at eighteen, Annie E. , now Mrs. C. Gembler; William A., 
Emma, now Mr.s. O. Hoos; Lewis H., Julia, now Mrs. A. Eckles; 
Lucy, Henry and Frederick C. They came to Seward County in 1877 
and settled in "K" town on section 23, on railroad land, where Mr. 
Wullenwaber has a most excellent farm and well improved. He is one 
of our enterprising wide-awake citizens. Has a membership in the M. 
W. A. 




F. N. Wullenwaber 

This young man came to Seward County, when a lad of seven sum- 
mers, in 1877, and grew to manhood on his father's farm southwest of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



197 



Seward. After getting all the good possible out of the country schools, 
he spent two years at the Seward high school. Commenced business 
with his father in the farm implement trade at Seward in 1894, and in 
the spring of 1904, Vjecame the sole proprietor and is doing a large busi- 
ness. It is very pleasing to note the steady advancement of this Sew- 
ard County bo}' to the prominent place he holds among the business 
men of this city. 




Mrs. F. N. Wullenwaber 

Was married to Miss Lena A. Bechtel of Seward, at Omaha, June 8, 
1898. These young people both were born in Illinois. Mrs. Wullenwaber 
came to Seward County when fourteen years old. The future historian 
may name their children. We can't wait to do that. 



THOMAS M. WIMBERLEY 

One of the lads that played on the streets of Seward in the long 
ago. Is now one of the live real estate men of University Place, Ne- 
braska. He was born iji Christian County, Illinois, but was sharp 
enough to find Nebraska in his early childhood. Came to light and life, 
October 2, 1859. 

When Thomas got big enough he won the heart of Miss Ina E. 
Haynes of Butler County and was married, December 3, 1883. She was 



198 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

born among the everlasting hills of York state, April 27, 1865, and 
came to JSebrasRa in early childhood. They have one daughter, Miss 
Bertha May. 



AUGUST ZALMAN 

This energetic young German was born, August 1,4. 1881), in Shelby 
County, Illinois. Came to Nebraska when eight years old, and with 
the parents made his home at Blue Hill, and in 1901 came to Ger- 
mantown, where he captured a young widow, Mrs. Lillie Tucker, No- 
vember 15, 1902. She was a Neljraska born girl of Nuckols County, 
born in 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Zalman are members of the Lutheran 
church. 



JOHN ZIMMEREK 

Has been fully identified with the interests of Seward and the 
county since it was a small village in 1873, when a mere boy came here 
with the firm of Bishoff & Zimmerer as chore boy and clerk. His 
older brother, Anton Zimmerer. being one of the firm. Some years 
later John was admitted to the firm as partner. His business ability 
developed rapidly and it was not long till he was placed in full control 
of their large and expanding business. John proved so faithful to every 
trust that he soon was acknowledged as one of the leading business 
men of the hustling young city. His success was a prodigy. Before 
ten years had past he became sole pi'oprietor of one of the largest hard- 
ware houses in central Nebraska. He built one of the best double bus- 
iness blocks of the city on Seward street and filled it from cellar to roof 
with merchandise. 

Mr. Zimmerer takes a leading part in enterprises of his city and is 
part owner of the great cereal mills besides he is a land owner and 
much interested in agriculture. We could heartily wish for a hundred 
just such men with judgment and energy to make things move. Young 
men of Seward County please learn a lesson from this German lad that 
worked for five dollars per month in his boyhood and saved fifty dollars 
the first year and sent the same to his father in payment for money 
borrowed to pay his way to America in 1868. Mr. Zimmerer was born 
in Germany in 1854. He came to this county in 1873 and has grown 
to be a man of wealth. Was a charter member of the First National 
Bank of Seward and of the Building and Loan association. 

Was married May 17. 1881, to Miss Philomena Sand. She was born 
in Atchison County, Missouri, January 10, 1859. Her parents moved to 
Nebraska City in 1860, where she grew to womanhood, however she 
spent some years in Europe in school. Mrs. Zimmerer is an accom- 
plished lady and is high minded and energetic in her church work. 
She is a leading and valuable member of the Catholic church in 
Seward. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 199 

DIETRICK ZIMMERMAN 

A good type of our German- American citizen. Was born in Han- 
over, Germany, October 12, 1841. Just as he had filled the requirements 
of his native country in the common schools, he at fifteen on his own 
hook, came to Amerioa. He had plenty of sea experience on a sail 
vessel for over seven weeks. Landing at New Orleans, thence he took 
a ride up the great river to St. Louis from there to Alton, Illinois, after 
some farther wandering, he found a home as farm hand at sixty- five 
dollars per year. Here he began to learn our language. In about eigh- 
teen months, the green German lad was ready to rent a farm and work 
for himself When about eighteen, the old folks came ovev and he en- 
joyed the parental home iintil he was twenty-six, when he married 
Miss Catherine Stillahan. Now he buys a farm of one hundred and 
fifty -two acres. 

In 1871, Mr. Zimmerman sold out his farm and made Nebraska his 
home, or rather prepared to move and 1872, we find him in "G" xjre- 
cinct. Ml". Zimmerman paid cash for a piece of R. R. land and re- 
ceived the first deed made by the company in Nebraska. He has met 
with remarkable success in all his undertakings, and has accumalated 
much wealth. He now owns clear of incumberance over thirteen hun- 
dred acres of valuable farms m Seward and other counties. 

Takes great interest in the Agriciiltural Society, and has been its 
president. He has from youth been an active member of the Evangeli- 
cal Lutheran church. Has been a trustee and is now an elder. When 
a school district was first organized in his district, he was elected 
treasurer and held the place for nearlj' thirty years. Cast his first vote 
for Grant and still adheres to the republican faith. He took out natur- 
alization papers the day Lincoln was assassinated. 

Was married, October 29, 18(37, to Miss Stillahan and nine children 
came to bless the home, viz: Annie D., Sophia M. K. , now Mrs. H. 
Weise; Mary M. , Dorotha S. , Albert H. D. . died in infancy; Lena D. 
W., Minnie M., Mettie M. L., and Wilhelm D. H. 

The following sketches were received too late to be arranged alphabetically! 
W. EDWARD BURKHOLUER 

Was born on the banks of the Wabash in the Hoosier state, May 7, 
1879. In his youth he learned the photographers trade and began the 
career of a wanderer in many lands. Has visited in his business forty- 
one states. Old Mexico and Central America, where he secured in his 
brain, a very complete photograph of the Isthmian canal and surround- 
ings. 

Ed. came to Seward County in 1902, and has settled at Milford, 
where he has a very complete gallery. Where you may secure a fine 
photograph, an oil painting, a pastel or crayon in first class style. 

JONATHAN L. DAVISON 
A farmer and stock raiser at Milford. Was born in Liraetown, 



200 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Connecticut, and is the son of Johnathan L. , and Sarah M, Davison, 
the former being of Scotch and Irish descent, the latter, whose maiden 
name was Miller, of French extraction. The subiect of this sketch 
moved to Bloomfield, Ontario County, with his parents when two years 
of age, and here received a common school education, and afterwards 
attended the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary. 




J. L. Davison 

In 1842 was married in New York to Miss Gerusha A. Weeks, who 
was a native of that state, and in 1847 moved to Dodge County, Wis- 
consin, where he farmed until 1857, that being the time of his removal 
to Nebraska. First located on Salt Creek, and took up a claim twelve 
miles south of Lincoln, working it until 1802, then went to Camden, 
Seward County, and started a ranch, being one of the very first settlers 
in the county. During the same year, he was appointed by the Terri- 
torial Legislature as one of the commissioners to open a road from Ne- 
braska City to Fort Kearney, which was known as the old Freight 
Trail and crossed the Blue River at Milford. 

Mr. Davison established the first post office at Camden, Ijeing the first 
in the county, and was the first postmaster of the same. Here he lived 
until April, 1864, then went up the Blue River and took up a home- 
stead, which forms a part of the present village of Milford. 

In 1867, in company with William Reed, he had the site of Milford 
surveyed and laid out in town lots. Mr. Davison has the honor of being 
the first Probate Judge in the county. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 201 

In 1884 he moved to Los Cruses, New Mexico, where he purchased 
a ranch, and operated it for a couple of yeais. Then sold that and his 
interests at Milford to J. H. Culver, and moved to California, and now 
resides at Los Angeles, in that state. 

J. A. FLO REN 

Was another of the brave lads that was born in old Sweden, but had 
got his eyes fixed on "old glory, "' and when he arrived at the age of 
manhood, determined to brave the dangers of the deep that he might 
find a home in this goodly land. He was born, January 8, 1845, and 
September 15, 1871, we find him the proud possessor of a homestead on 
section 30, "K" precinct. Three years later, September 2, 1874, he 
found his best girl. Miss Anna Norin and was married at Seward. She 
was a Swedish lady born in the Fatherland, December 10, 1845 and 
came to America in her youth. They have six children, viz : Minnie 
E. , now Mrs. McChestney ; Nettie, Carl F. , Jessie, Arthur and Frank. 

Mr. Floren and his good wife were highly prized as citizens of 
Seward County for thirty years, but somehow they have taken up with 
Red Oak, Iowa and have lived there three years. They belong to the 
Presbyterian church. 

MILTON LANCiDON 

Was an .early pioneer of Lancaster County. The family came to 
the Salt Basin in May, 1862, and he was one of the men who helped the 
people of Nebraska to salt during war times. For a time he was a 
partner with this author in the salt business. Was one of the early 
count)' treasurers of Lancaster County. 

Took up his residence at Oak Grove in Seward County in 1872, and 
was a manufacturer of lime for many years. He invented a novel fur- 
nace for burning brick and lime in which hay or straw could be util- 
izefi to great advantage. Mr. Langdon was a rhan of marked intelli- 
gence and was known as our walking encyclopedia. He was a most 
thorough historian. Was born in Warren County, Pennsylvania, April 
28, 1823. Found the way to Janesville, Wisconsin, at an early day 
where he was married to Miss Anna Mitchel, April 26, 1848. Mrs. Lang- 
don was born near Rochester, New York, April 26, 1821. She went to 
Janesville when a child and like her husband knew all about pioneer 
life. 

They raised four children, viz: Andrew, Carrie, now Mrs. Hugh 
Hunter of Omaha ; Kate, now Mrs. Samuel Melick of Lincoln and John. 
Mrs. Langdon was a most worthy and intelligent christian lady. Mr. 
Langdon died in December, 1880. His wife survived him nearly four 
years, and died July 16, 1884, at Seward. Mrs. Langdon .loined the 
Congregational church in her youth. She was a faithful servant of the 
Master to the end. She was the light of the home, and a blessing to 
the communities in which she lived. 



202 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

CULVER BOYS 

Clarence C. Culver was born December 25, 1872. Received a com- 
mon school education ; attended the state university of Nebraska from 
1891 to 1898. Took a course in the militarj' department of the univer- 
sity, and was a member of Troop A, N. N. G. At the close of his col- 
lege course he went to Denver and engaged as a cashier for a packing 
firm. 

At the breaking out of the Spanish War, he resigned his position 
and came back to Milford, and enlisted as a private in the troop which 
his father commanded. A few days later was made Quartermaster Ser- 
geant of the regiment, and served as such until the regiment was mus- 
tered out , then was sent to Washington by the Colonel to verify the ac- 
counts of company officers. At the close of this duty, he was sent to 
Camp Meade, Pennsylvania, to straighten up the accounts of the Quar- 
termaster of General Coles' brigade. He accompanied the General to 
Columbia, South Carolina, where he was placed in charge of the Quar- 
termaster and Commissary Supply Depot. On the muster out of this 
brigade, he reported back to Washington, and at his own request, was 
assigned to transport service; served as Quartermaster Clerk transports 
running to Savannah, Cuba and New York, until July, 1899. when he 
was ordered to the Philippines in company with Captain Horton, and 
was made Division Quartermaster Clerk for General Lavvton's division, 
serving through the campaigns with this officer in Northern Central 
Luzon, enduring many hardships. 

At the close of this tour of duty, he was ordered to Manila, and re- 
ported to Colonel Miller, Chief Quartermaster, for service, when he 
was commissioned as 1st. Lieutenant, Volunteer, and authorized to or- 
ganize a troop of Macabe scouts, which he soon accomplished and joined 
Major Batsen's squadron of Filipino scouts, and operated with this offi- 
cer through Central Luzon. 

Was recommended for a position in the regular service, passing his 
examination successfull3% and was commissioned as second lieutenant 
of Cavalry and assigned to the 15th Regiment, February 2, 1901. Was 
soon after sent to Zamboanga, Mindanao, on quartermaster's duty. He 
was assigned to a Spanish boat, and on a trip of 8U0 miles, was caught 
in a typhoon. The officer of the boat being taken sick, he took hold 
and succeeded in navigating the ship and was quite successful in bring- 
ing it into port. 

He was placed in command of a detachment of cavalry in Colonel 
Baldwin's advance against the Moros. Returning from this service, he 
was ordered to Jolo, and reported to his regimental commander for duty. 
Was health officer during the rage of cholera in that vicinity. This 
duty was quite arduous and dangerous. 

He participated in the various skirmishes and duties devolving upon 
the officers of this far away post, until the regiment returned to the 
United States in December, 1903, having been in the Philippines four 
years and a half, without experiencing a day's sickness. A portion of 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 203 

the regiment to which he was attached, was sent to Fort Myer, Virginia, 
where he served until he received the promotion as 1st Lieutenant, 
and was then transferred to the 3rd U. S. Cavalry, stationed at Fort 
Assinniboine, Montana, where he is at present on duty as Post Com- 
missary, Engineer and Signal officer, and Post Exchange officer. 

Elwin E. Culver was horn at Milford, Nebraska, January 1, 1^75. 
He received a common school education and attended the State univer- 
sity for two years. He enlisted in Troop A, N. N. G., when he was 
thirteen years of age, as trumpeter, serving as such and private, cor- 
poral and elected 2nd. Lieutenant in 1897. Was mvistered into the U. 
S. service with the troop, which became Troop K of the 3rd U. S. 
Volunteer Cavalry, commanding the troop in the absence of his fath- 
er, as the 1st. Lieutenant was sick during most of the service. 

Returning to Milford at the close of the Spanish War. he engaged 
in business, which he turned over to his brother Harry. September 1, 
1899, and enlisted as a private in Company L, 32nd LT. S. Infantry. 
Was promoted to Corporal, Quartermaster Sergeant, and 1st. Sergeant, 
serving with his regiment in the Philippine insurrection, which was 
actively engaged in the Magalang and Tarlac campaigns in Central 
Luzon against Muscardo in Zambales and Bataan provinces. 

Was mustered out with his regiment and returned to active busi- 
ness life at Milford. Was made assistant cashier of the First National 
Bank at Sutton, Nebraska, which positon he still holds. He is also 
Quartermaster of the 2nd Regiment, N. N. G. , with the rank of 
Captain. 

Harry H. Culver was born at Milford, Nebraska, January 22, 1880. 
Attended the common school at Milford also Doane college and State 
university. He also enlisted in Troop A, N. N. G., serving as Trum- 
peter, private, corporal and sergeant. Was mustered into the U. S. 
service with the ti'oop. On reaching Chickamauga, was made Squad- 
ron Sergeant Major, which position he held until the muster out of the 
regiment. Near the close of the service, he was taken with typhoid 
fever, and came very near dying on Lookout mountain, where he was 
taken for the benefit to be derived from the high altitude and better 
care. Recovering, he returned home and took up his course of study 
in the iiniversity. The following year, he started on a wheeling trip 
to Galveston, Texas, where his comrade was taken sick; passed on 
through the Gulf state, and up the Atlantic coast to New York, break- 
ing all previous records for long distance riding. He returned to Mil- 
ford, Nebraska, and took charge of his father's business, and resumed 
his course of study in the university. 

In 1901, he left for the Philippines, engaged in the merchantile 
business at Olongapa ; then went to Manila, assuming the duties of a 
reporter on the Manila Times, in which position he made rapid ad- 
vancement until he reached the head of the reportorial list; then was 
appointed special agent. Customs Department of the Philippines. 

Was married to Miss Eunice Richardson of Lincoln, Nebraska. Af- 



204 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

ter three and a halt years' service in the Philippines, was compelled 
to return to the United States on account of his wife's health. He was 
assigned to special duty in the customs service at St. Louis and De- 
troit, which position he resigned last winter to engage in private en- 
terprise. 

Fred D. Culver was born at Milford August 20, 1883. Attended 
the public schools at Milford. Enlisted as Trumpeter Troop A, N. N. 
G. , at fourteen years of age, and was serving in that capacity when 
the Spanish War broke out a year after. He was mustered in with the 
troop, went to Chickamauga, serving a short time as Chief Trumpeter 
for the regiment ; then on the organization of the mounted band, as 
second cornetist, in which capacity he served until the close of that 
service. Returning to Milford again, took up his school work, but be- 
coming restless when his father and brothers entered the Philippin,e 
service, begged to .join them, and being only sixteen, he was granted 
special permit by the Secretary of War to enlist. He entered the 82nd 
Regimental Band, in which organization he served throughout the Phil- 
ippine service, during the different campaigns in which the regiment 
w;is engaged, and during the latter part of the service, was stationd at 
Bolanga, a low bay town, where he contracted malarial poison, and was 
discharged two months before the regiment's time expired. 

The next year or two was spent in Southern California. Then 
he returned to Lincoln, took a course of study at the university, and 
has been assisting his father in the Adjutant General's office. 

CHARLES W. AND BRUCE C. BEAVER 
Charles W. and Bruce C. , sons of Samuel Beaver, Enlisted in the 
2nd U. S. Volunteer Engineers, in July, 1898, and went to Cuba, 
where they were among the first to enter Moro Castle after the sur- 
render. Charle)- had charge of the repair work in the fort and other 
forts in the vicinity. While there the boys secured some valuable rel- 
ics, among which was a cane made from tim])er that had been in the 
old fort two hundred and fifty years. The boys did not get to go to 
Manilla but were discharged in June, 1899, at Augi;sta, Georgia. 
Charley was promoted to the lieutenancy of Company C. Bruce was a 
musician. 

GEORGE W. AND CHARLES PICKEREL 
George W. Pickerel enlisted in 39th U. S. Volunteer Infantry in 
Company H. , in 1899 and served on the Island of Luzon and was in two 
battles and six skirmishes. Served two years and was honorably dis- 
charged. 

Charles enlisted and served two years in Luzon. Was detailed as 
scout with nine of Company G. He got into close quarters once where 
the ten boys had a battle with three hundred Filipinos. Thirty of the 
enemy were killed and eighteen were wounded and the rest were stam- 
peded. Honorable mention of Chailes heroic work was made by his 
commanding officers. 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 20J 



INDEX TO PART ONE 



Advertiser, Brovvnville 14 

Alexander Majors 30 

Antelopes on sight of Lincoln 38 

Alone in our glory 49 

A bad scare 49 

A rough customer 52 

A lawyer, first sight of him 73 

An editor appeared in the wilderness 73 

A little lecture 74 

A little story, saw the devil coming 113 

A tough place 114 

A motly crew lirj 

"A" precinct first settled 115 

A story of frontier life 125 

A great big precinct formed 129 

About frozen . 135 

A young cyclone 138 

Alone to tell the tale 145 

An advancel step st 153 

All roads have a turn 154 

Acthison and Nebraska bond case 170 

A. and N. injunction sustained 170 

Another murder 175 

A curious feature about Bates' murder .. 177 

Accidental death near Marysville 179 

Another foul murder, Patrick 179 

Anderson, Mrs. S. F 201-203 

April l)lizzard 208 

''A" precinct 345 

Advocate, history 314 

Address at reunion 338 

Agricultural Society, its history 345 

Assessments and financial condition 354 

A story of John and his gun 359 

Boundaries of territory 9 

Boulware, Colonel 12 

Block House 12 

Bull Whackers 30 

Boydston, J. L. : 33 

Bewitchingly beautiful 39 

Beautiful grove 39 



206 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Baking slap-jacks 42 

Burd and the little burds 54 

Beauty & Davis 60 

Bull trains 64 

Ben Holliday, the old stages , 67 

Beal, Rev. Byron, his scraps 68 

Boyd Governor James E. his home 68 

Boys pinned together 76 

Burt, Gov 80 

Buffalo hunt— Moses 97 

Borrowed or bought it— school house... 130 

Brush, Marcus elected 138 

"Behind the clouds" 151 

Bonds carried 153 

Borrowing money 163 

Beckard. Fritz 164 

Bonds take a ride to Kansas City 172 

Business languised 175 

Bates, William killed 175 

Bates, Israel, wounded 176 

Brighter skies 180 

Bonds, F. E. and M. V 181 

Beaver Crossing comes to the front .' 183 

Beaver Crossing's change of heart 183 

Brown, James A., letter 308 

"B" precinct by F. M. Timblin 236 

"B" precinct history 246 

Blue Valley Record history 291 

Blue Valley Record, clippings 294 

Beaver Crossing papers 315 

Banks of Seward county 361 

Burlington railroad busines 395 

Brick Yard ' 400 

Building and Loan Association 402 

Bee 411 

California Emigrants 11 

Cabanne trading post 12 

Chief Artaketa 27 

Chip sack 30 

Characteristics of pioneers 34 

Carder, W. W 35 

Commonwealth founded 35 

County seat at Lancaster 45 

Clay county despoiled 47 

Cadman, Hon. John 49 

Courts of confusion 51 

Coming of the Union Pacific railroad 73 

Coward turned the cut throats free 75 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 207 

Cummins, Grovernor 80 

Creating counties ^^ 

Courthouse 1^*^ 

Change name of county H'^ 

County surveyed HI 

Child to be born, stormy night 121 

Camped on housetop 123 

Camped on hay stack 123 

County commissioners, first . . 128 

County board on wheels 128 

Camden's fii-st teacher 130 

Camden's prosperity 130 

Camden's mills built 129 

Cattle on the lift ^^^ 

Capital moved 13'^ 

Complaint against Parker 1'12 

Can't take you to jail! 144 

Cost a mint of money 147 

Court house sold 14'^ 

Converse, Dr. J. N 149 

Clothed in sackcloth 151 

Centennial year, 4th of July 158 

Clough, Warren and trial 159 

Clough, Nathan 159 

Coleman, H. M 1^1 

Competition in grain trade, played out 170 

Competing railroad wanted 181 

Corn 9 to 15 cents 186 

Change for the better 186 

Came near being drowned 208 

Cooper, Roger 209 

Coralled the daughter 209 

Courtright, Jacob, fruit 220 

Camden letter ^^'^ 

Campbell, George 2^4 

Casler murder •- ^43 

"C" precinct history 246 

Cox's ancient letter 287 

Clothing of the people 333 

Court house bond fights ^52 

City of Seward in 1905 375 

Chicago «& N. W. railroad business 397 

Churches 416, 433 

Civic orders "^ 

County roster ■■• 44~/ 

Dedication - 

Downs, Major H. P 14-34 

Developments in 1858 1^ 



208 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Draper, Joel 38 

Distinguished visitors 42 

Donevan, W. T 36-43 

Duntly. Judge E. S 54 

Dream land 62 

Dried apple pies 66 

Dr. George L. Miller's life work 82 

Davison, J. L. , opened ranch 113-116 

Death and Imrial, the first 119 

Dr. McKesson, first preacher 124 

Desperate winter 134 

Day of final battle 147 

Derby, Hon. Geo. A 161 

Derby, Clara, first teacher at Utica 165 

Dust storms 174 

Double murder and suicide 184 

Democratic papers 217 

Dillenbeck, Miss Lidia. her letter 223 

Davenport, Andrew 234 

"D" precinct, history of 248 

Directors of school districts 273 

Disbursement of public money 273 

Early pioneers of Lancaster county 40 

Elks and hunters 50 

Extreme cold of December 31st, 1863 51 

Evans' work not lost 75 

Eight Indians disappear 77 

Ellis, E. L. 116 

Election, first in county 1864 117 

Election in 1865 128 

Election in 1867 131 

''Everything fair in war" 147 

Elsworth, F. M, stole the returns 151-210 

Eggs to market 162 

Eighteen hundred and seventy-eight all right ■. 168 

Eighteen hundred and seventy-nine prosperous 174 

Eighteen hundred and eighty all goes wrong 174 

Englehaupt 235 

"E" precinct, history of 249 

Ellis diary, E. L 269 

Eggs and poultrj' 187,357 

Electric light plant 392 

Early railroading 415 

Fort Kearney .. 12 

Fort Larimie founded 12 

Fort Atkinson 12 

Fort Cragon 12 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 209 

Fort Leavenworth established 12 

First words printed in territory 13 

Forney county 14 

Furnas. R. W 14,91 

First Territorial Legislature 15 

Fire and Marine Insurance company 16 

Floating ice 21 

Florence money 22 

First apple tree planted 32 

First Presljyterian church in Nebraska 33 

First frame house west of NeV)raska Citj^ 36 

First Fi-ame house in Lancaster county 43 

First sermon at Basin 50 

Flour from Winterset : 42 

Friendships formed . 42 

Founding of Lancaster 45 

Fish story 50 

Fruits at Basin 50 

Frost in summer 53 

First district conrt in Lancaster 53 

Found the babes . 56 

First telegraph in Nebraska 68 

Fouces' ranch 113 

Fred with cigar box 117 

First white boy at Sew^ard 124 

Folden, Rev. A. J 164 

Flocks of new people 180 

Feeding stock 181 

F. E. &. M. V. rail road 181 

Flowing wells .. 183 

From memories' wall '. 193 

Frink, Mrs. Malinda, her letter 212 

Fronse, John E 114,216 

Frink, Miss Inez, her letter 238 

"F" precinct, history of 250 

Fourth of July, 1868 279 

Fourth of July, 1876 281 

First white child born 281 

Farmer's Zeitung history 316 

First district court — 339 

First marriages 340 

Fire association 393 

Fire association 402 

First ride on a rail 415 

Governor Cummins" proclamation 15 

Gold Sign 22 

Grow, Galusha A 22 



210 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Great fire at Nebraska Citj- 24 

Great drouth 25 

Governor Black 27 

Giltner, Rev 33 

Gregory, John S 47, 60 

Gale, R. T 60. 116 

Grand Island fortifies 77 

Graham's notes in 1858 110 

Great flood 135 

Grand sight 136 

Grasshoppers and their work 154, 210 

Grasshoppers second visit 158 

Goodbrod, George 164 

Goodbrod, Clara, first born 165 

Gaely, Hon. S. B., R. R. Atty 169 

Granger murder 177 

General "Prosperity," arrives 187 

Great big ugly creatures 201 

"G" precinct history 252 

Graham's Diary 271 

German Normal school 386 

Germantown Creamery 413 

Germantown postoffice . 414 

Grover postofiice '. 414 

Howard, Professor George E. 12 

Home to America 13 

Harding, N. S 33 

Hawley, E. S 33 

Hopps, Robert 19, 33 

Hostetter, Jacob 33 

Hole in the ground : 113 

Hilton the speculator 117 

Hotels all free 140 

Hid in the tall grass 144 

Hope revived 157 

Hilliard , Thomas, mortally hurt 176 

Honey bee .': 181 

Home of our choice 187 

Historic letters 189 

"H" precinct hi.story 253 

Hickmanville letter 288 

Imigrants from northern states 11 

Indian traders 12 

Infatuated people 16 

Irsh, O. H 33 

Her, James 37 

Indian in the hot water 44 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 211 

Improvements in 1864 53 

Indian stampede . 55 

Imlay, Hon. Wm 60, 116, 117 

Iowa fellows helped 80 

Imlay families ^ 116 

Imlay arrested 132 

In the heydey of glory 147 

"In a quandary" 157 

Improved conditions 157 

"I" precinct pays the bill 173 

Improvements in 1882 180 

Indian ^scares Mrs. Anderson 201 

"I" precinct history 254 

Independent Democrat clippings 317 

Industrial home 360 

John Brown of Osawatomy 28 

July 4th, 1862 45 

Job's tvirkey 125 

Johnson, Jesse R 126, 232 

Johnson. James first postmaster * 126 

Jones. Claudius, railroad racket 168 

Johnson, I. M. K., his letter 229. 233 

"J" precinct history 257 

Killed the i^appoose 79 

Kill-kenny cat fight 146 

Kinney, Elisha, letter on fruit 218 

"K" precinct history 258 

Lewis and Clarks visit... 11 

Land sale '. 23 

Lemon, Rev. Doctor : 33, 72 

Letter from J. S. Morton 34 

Langdon and wife 43, 61 

Look back forty years 67 

Less than thirty thousand 69 

Letter from Moses 94 

Leonard's ranch 113 

Log school house on Bartons land 126 

Lincoln founded 137 

Lost a years growth 145 

Legislature relieved us : 146 

Lowley, Geo. W., (Prosecutor) 160 

Liggett, 'leorge 162 

Laborers and mechanics deserted the city 175 

Leavitts children killed 184 

Lessons in political economy 205 

"L" precinct history 259 



212 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Mormon ei migrants 11,22 

Morton, J. Sterling;, 13, 84 

Morton, Thos. 13 

Modes of travel 15 

Majors, Russell and Model] . l(5.30,(ir) 

Moved to Nebraska 21 

Mormon war . 22 

Mob 24 

Mob No. 2 ..: : 25 

Major Demsten 2() 

MobNo.3 2(i 

Majors of a slave holder 32 

Masters, J. H ' 32 

Mathias and Hathaway 35 

Morgan, Daniel 40 

Manufactoring salt ' 40 

Murder in his heart 52 

Marquette. Hon. T. M 54 

Miller, Dr. George L 64, 77 

Massacre on the Platte * ()9 

Marquette. Rev : 73 

Martins ranch plundered 76 

McKinley and Morton settlement Ill 

Milk-pan shelled coin 122 

Moffitts visit 124 

Moffitts cabin.. 125 

Milford new cgmers 128 

Milford postoffice 406 

Milford Mills ; 407 

Milford Newspapers , ■. . 409 

Milford was founded . 128 

Milford gained a point 131 

Milford held the county seat 13H 

Mains, court judge, J. D. 143 

Midland R. R. (interview) 149 

Midland R. R. proposition 149,150 

Midland R. R. vote by precincts 150 

Midland new proposition 151 

Milfords mistake 151 

Mason, Judge O. P.. R. R. Attorney 169 

My wilderness home in childhood 190 

Memories of childhood 193 

Matthews, S, G. 210 

M. C. Nichols, Claud D , second victim 216 

"M" precinct history 260 

Nebraska City News 14 

Nebraska Republican... 15 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 213 

No lands in market Ifj 

New crisp bills 21 

Nearest railroad 46 

Nebraska admitted 136 

Norval FJros. and Judge Mason 160 

"No havee, No cannee" 199 

' * NText week and netx week 205 

■"N" precinct history 261 

Newspapers of county history and clippings 286 

Nebraska Reporter history 305 

Nebraska Reporter clippings 308 

Organic act 10 

Oregon emigrants 11 

Omaha Nebraksan 15 

Omaha Herald 15 

Overland freighting 22 

Our conveyance : 38 

Old irons 57 

Old man's load of merchandise 112 

Old wagon-tire burst 127 

Old well in the square _ 141 

Old Windmill 161 

Over two thirds vote 147 

Oak Grove gets a sop 151 

Our first murder case . 158 

Oscar's hunt 163 

On the haystack 203 

Old Brisbin school-house 206 

Old dog Mike stole the meat 213 

Orchaids and tree planting 218-219-220 

Oak Grove Settlement, E. W. Olriey 225 

Oliver, Rev. L 234 

"0"precinct history . 263 

Preface 8 

Political Storm 10 

Palaudium was born 13 

Pierce County 14 

Peoples Press . 14 

Pikes-Peap Craze 17 

Panic of 1857 17 

Paper Cities 19-22 

Picked out a ticket 30 

President Buchannan . 23 

Planting Orchards 32 

Peckham Mrs. Darwin 33 

Pearman, Wallace 33 

Peckham, Darwin our pard 40 



214 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Prosperity 44 

Parker, H. W „ 46 

Post Office at Basin 48 

Pemberton the tough 54 

Fottenger, Judge got the warrant 55 

Paul on freighting 63 

Pork and Mustard 66 

Prarie fires 73 

Prominent men of Omaha in 1854 81 

Privation on frontier 113 

Perils of the night 122 

Panicky Indian scare 127 

Parker defeated 138 

Planting fruit trees 158 

Phiney, Rev. C. E 164 

Pressure was great 169 

Potato field i 183 

Political matters in 1892 1S6 

Pittsburg City of vision 205 

Pioneering in childhood 223 

Prairie fires 207-223 

Parker and Raper Mill 228 

Philport. Major 228 

Pleasant Dale 255 

"P" precinct history 264 

Precinct assessments, Baker 267 

Powel, Willis M., first victim 216 

Parker, Mrs. H. W. , her letter 227 

Precinct Histories from A to P 245 

Political History 282 

Pleasant Dale schools 410 

Quinn, Rev. Father 164 

Quarters rather small 216 

Rattle snake, flag 283 

Rebels at the Basin 50 

Root hog or die 65 

Ranch life 94 

Rogers Settlement 124 

Reed, \Vm. H., elected .. 131 

Reed's record and vote 132 

Reed arrested 133 

Rail road bond proposition 141 

Rapped hard at capin door 143 

Reed in the sweat box 144 

Red headed Attorney 144' 

Ready to die happy 146 

Record, Milford 148 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 215 

Railroad completed to Seward 152 

Railroad completed to York . 161 

Ragan, Oscar 1()2 

Recollections, frontier ilfe in boj'hood,Prof. A. E.Sheldon 204 

Roberts, John Sr 209 

Rattlers held the fort 223 

Richardson, Abner M 234 

Slave Clause 10 

Southern people determined 10 

Sarpy, Col. Peter A 13 

Settlment began 13 

Squatters Claims 13 

Speculation ran rampant .. 16-22 

Salt Lake 22 

Stole the money 27 

Slaves in Territory 28 

Salt Basin 36 

Salt pilgrims v 3» 

Strange thoughts 39 

South wind hot 46 

Story of founding Lancaster 47. 

Steam wagon road and wagon 48-64-113-116 

Second Indian scare 58 

Schamp, Rev. Peter 61 

Scared by the reds 76 

Sydenham, Moses H 94 

State Ocffiers 100-106 

Seward, Wm. H 109-110 

Settlements along the river 114 

Scott, John : 115 

Stormy winter 122 

South Blue Settlement Store, the first in county 129 

Seward fellows turn 133 

Seward surveyed 138 

Seward grew 138 

Seward outgeneraled 139 

Strang's windmill ". 140 

Shields, Judge John 144 

Stood aghast 147 

Strenuous fight 147 

Sentence Commuted 160 

Standard, Thomas E 164 

Story of cattle stampede 165 

Seward was sick 1'75 

Small pox scare , l''^^ 

Small pox in eai'nest l'<^9 

Stormy winter 1881 . . ■•■ -^ 180 



216 HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 

Stienblock's letter 185 

Sherifif, the salesman 186 

Sketch of Mrs. Pingree 192 

"Sheet of flame" 207 

Shafer, Erza 209 

Snakes in kitchen 212 

School house burned 216 

Smith, WmD. , came home to die 216 

Smith, W. H., his letter 217 

Schools of Milford 224 

Scott, Miss Sarah A 225 

Schools of county — Koch 241 

School houses, their location 276 

Snow storms 341 

State institutions , 367 

Soldiers' and Sailors' home 367 

Seward schools 376 

Seward postoffice 381 

Seward Cereal Mills 397 

Seward Flour Mills 399 

Smiles from Heaven 454 

Twenty-five cents per day 17 

Tagart, Rev. 33 

Two dim trails 38 

Trade at the Basin 41 

Too late to run ^. 59 

Two best agricultural states 67 

Three boys badly scared 70 

Track too fresh 70 

Three dead buffaloes ■. 71 

Tom went dead 72 

Tribute to Morton 83 

Thayer, General John M. . sketch, 88 

Territorial officers 100-105 

Thompson's ranch 113 

Thousands of teams 114 

Throngs of Mormons .= : 119 

Thirty acres prairie broken _ 125 

Trip in the dark and mud 143 

Two railroad projects 168 

Thompson, Professor Margeret E 193-200 

Tisdale, Tom calling off names 207 

Tearing down the barracks 243 

Tribute to Wives and Mothers 331 

Telephone companies 358 

Tamora postoffice ■.... 414 

U. P. R. R. located 46 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 21' 

Uncle Dan's experience 118 

Utica fonded Kil 

Ugly bachelor 215 

Unwelcome gnests 284 

Utica Sun history ;Uti 

Utica, history 411 

Voting precincts of territory 14 

Visitors at the Basin 42 

Vifquain, General Victor 114 

Votes thrown out 131 

Vultures 155-156 

Vilalge of Bee. — E. H. Noxon 215 

" Won't grow white beans" 14 

Wyoming Telescope 15 

Wild cat banks 16 

War meeting 29 

Winter storms at Basin 51 

Wolf at the door 51 

Wild stampede and panic 77 

Who were the first settlers 111 

West, Thomas 111-229 

Wallingford's ranch 113 

Walnut Creek ranch llH-195 

Wild Waters 136 

Wood 110 per cord .. 138 

We are heartily glad 147 

What Hulburt did 172 

Western lands 180 

Wages 1H7 

Wolf killing our calf 195 

Welch, S. J. Fruit and tree planting 219 

We got the start of hogs 226 

West mills settlement 229 

West, James - 232 

Wright, Hon. C. J., grasses. 240 

Water an water courses 277 

What kind of people are we B35 

Waterworks •588 

Young, Rev. J. M 33-49-93 

Yellow dogs 42 



INDEX TO PART TWO 



Anderson, Aaron 

Anderason, Calvin 

Anderson, Harrison H 
Anderson, George W 
Anderson, McClellan C 
Andervson, J Templeton 

Anderson, Ross P 

Anderson, Lewis 

Anderson, John S 

Ahlschvvede, William 
Ahlschwede, Herman F 

Ahlscwede, Fred J 

Alpin.L. R 

Anstine, Earl R 

Alexander, Charles D 
Alexander, Lauren S 

Andrus, Dr. Fred M 

Archer, Ed C 

Atwood, Hon.S. S 

Adams, Charles H 



3 
3 
4 
4 
6 
6 
7 

10 
7 
7 



10 

10 

11 

Banks, Mary S 11 

Brant. Volney 12 

Bauer, George Jr 12 

Bacon, C. C 13 

Beck, Rev. Christian 13 

Beehe, Winfield S 13 

Berry, James .• 14 

Boyes, Hiram L 14 

Bradley, Harry H 15 

Brooks, Henry M 

Best, Walter 



15 

16 

Benninghoven, E 16 

16 

.. ... 17 

18 

18 

19 

19 

20 

20 

20 



Bender, John M 

Brandon, Dr. Geo. W 
Bouchard, L. T 
Brisbin, H. L 

Baker, A. E 

Beckmn.Hon H 

Brink-Meyer,W.T 

Bechtel, Adam 

Busche, Henry F 



Betzer, E. C 
Becker, Rev. Carl H 
Bishop, Tho.s.H 

Badgley, Willis D 

Bender. L. J 

Bernecker, Herman J 
Birky Chris C 
Bowker Ism 
Blackburn Joseph 

Brokaw, Wm A 

Brokaw, F. H 

Brooks, Joseph 
Burkholder, W. E 
Beaver, C. W and J. C 

Campion, Michel M 

Campion, Martin . 
Courtright, Eli 
Clark. Rev. E. L 

Chapin, Irving G 

Courtright, Elisha 

Casler, Joseph H 

Clark, Allison 

Cox, Jefferson 

Cox, W. W 

Cox, Mrs. Rebecca S 

Cox, L. W 

Cox, Dr. O. L 

Cline, Larson J 

Collamore, Geo. W 

Cummins, Dr. H. B 

Culver. Gen. J. H 

Carey. M. D 

Courtright, J. B 

Castle, L G 

Callahan, L. S 

Cooper, Capt. R. T 

Coneley, F. F 

Castle, Martin 

Culver, C. C 

Culver, E. E 

Culver, H. H 



21 

21 
22 
22 
22 
23 
23 
23 
24 
24 
25 
25 
19 
204 
25 
26 
26 
27 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
31 
31 
33 
34 
31 
35 
35 
38 
40 
42 
42 
42 
43 
44 
44 
202 
203 
203 



220 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



Culver. F. D 

Diiukers, D 

Dillenheck, J. S 

Derby, Hon. Geo. A 

Davis, Hon. Wm R 

Davis, A. Y 

Davis, M. A. V 
Uavis, George 

Dalton, John 

Doty, Dr. Chas. W 

Dowding, Jas A 
Da vies, Thos L 

Dunham, Jus. P 

Dunigan, Michael 

Diers, Herman 

Dickenson, W. R 
Davidson, Chas. A 
Dimery, Hon. M. W 

Dixon, R. L 

Dunlap. J. P 
Dumphy, Hon. R. E 
Dupin, H. H 

Davison, J. L 

Erb. John 

Englehaupt, John 
Englehaupt, George 
Endicott, Hon. J. J 
Evans, John 

Evans, Charles C 

Evans, Wm. W 
Eager, Earl D 
Figard, D. H 

Figard, Silas 

Figard, Henry 
Figard, John 
Feigion, David 

Ford, W. S 

Foster, Cieorge 
Foster, Thomas J 
Fleener, John 
Furnald, A. H 
Fallen. J. A 
Fletcher, J. M 

Frink, D. R 

Feary, I. H 

Fuller, Hon. George W 

Florin, J. A 



204 
44 
44 
46 
47 
50 

:^l 

51 
51 
52 



53 
54 
55 
55 
55 
5(j 
5(5 
5(j 
57 
57 
l!l!» 
5S 
58 
59 
59 
59 
t)0 
(Id 
()1 
(il 
()1 
(13 
(i3 
(i3 
()4 
(14 
()4 
(i5 
()5 

('.(> 
(57 
G7 
(59 
201 



Gale, R. T 

Galusha, Algernon . 

Gannon, A. H 

Garner, J. A 

Givens, W. D 

Geeson, J. F 
Geis, Jacob 
Gembler, Charles, 
Goecke, Herman 

Goehner, J. F 

Gordon, C. M 

Graff, A. E 

Gruber, Rev. Karl T 



70 
70 
71 
71 

71 

72 



72 
74 
74 
74 



Graham, Hon. Thomas 75 



Gwartney, Don C 

Gray, Owen 

Gannon, J. P 

Hageman, S. P 

Hater, Levi 

Haines, J. A 

Hartman, F. C 

Harold, W. G 

Herchberger, P. P 

Healey, Hon. Thomas 
Hickman, B. F 



76 

77 

77 

77 

77 

78 

78 

80 

80 

80 

81 

Hickman, Wm 81 



Hecox. M. P 

Heuman, H. A 
Hinshaw, Hon.E.H 
Holland, Hon. C. E 

Holland, E. C 

Howard, L. O 
Howdersheldt, F. W 
Huffman, J. H 
Humphrey, C. K 
Humphrey, O. E 

Hughes, John M 

Hughes, W. C 
Hurt, G. G 
Iniig, C;irl 
Iinl.iy, David, Sr. 
Iinlay, Hon. Wm 
Imlay, Adison 
Johnston, Lucian 

Jensen, Edward 

Jones, Claudius 



.._ 82 

. 83 

83 
83 
_. .. 84 
85 
85 
85 • 
86 

86 

86 

87 

87 

87 
88 

88 

89 

89 

91 

92 

Jones, Joseph 94 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



221 



Jones, H. T 

Konright, Win 

Knight. Wm 

Kinney, Elisha B. 
Kinsingev, J. A . 



94 

95 
96 

96 

.. 97 

Kealy, Miss Margaret 97 

Kitchen, Thomas H 98 

Knight, Elias B 89 

Klenck, Phillip 98 

Knox, Charles S 98 

Koch, Carl G. A 99 

Koch, E. H 99 

Kroeger, Carl F 100 

Krueger H. W 100 

Lance, S. D. 100 

Landes, H. D 100 

Logan, J. T 101 

Logan, Hugh 101 

Laiiber, Benjamin 101 

Leavitt, Rev. F. W 102 

Leger, Theodore 102 

Leavens, A. 102 

Lonhridge, Dr. W. K 104 

Leibrock, Charles 104 

Long, Samuel 104 

Lyon, C. L 106 

Lusher, John 106 

Langdon, M 107 

Madson, Martin 106 

Marsh, Dr. F. A 107 

Matzke, C. F 108 

Mauer, John 108 

Mayland, Chris 108 

•Mayland, Henry 108 

Morgan, Rev. W. D 109 

Morton, Thomas 109 

McCauley, J. W 109 

Merrill, J. H 110 

McKay, George C 112 

McCollister Ira . 112 

McGrew, A. M 112 

Merrill, Rev. Jospeh llv? 

MeiTium, George A 118 

McKillip, L. H 113 

Meyers, T. W 114 

Middaugh, G. W 114 

Miller, James . 114 



Miller, H, M 
Miller, Wm. W 

Miller, W. J 

Miller, Harper 

McLain, Hon. J. E 
Mickey, Gov. J. H 
Mikkelsen Jens L 

Moffitt, Lewis 

M(jrrow, Dr. Joseph, hospital 

Moler, Harvey 

Meyers, T. W 

Moore, Wm. H 

Moore, L. C 

Mnrphy, Rev. William 

Norval, Judge T. L. . 

Norval, Hon. R. S 
Neihardt, L D 

Newton, E. J 

Noxon, E. H 

Nunemaker, Shields 
Ohlwiler, J. Q 

Ost, L. E 

Olmstead, Orson 
Oxley, C. H 

Parks, F. M 

Palmer, D. B 

Palmer, M. B 

Petrie, G. L 

Petrie, Henry 

Petrie, J. C . 

Perry, Benjamin F 

Pence, Samuel . . 

Petty. Dr. Charles O 

Petty, James A 

Perkinson, J. H 

Petsch, F. W 

Pitt, M. S 

Piecre, Wm. O 

Pierce, W. W 

Polley, E. A 

Potter, J. T 

Presson, Rev. H. 

Precknew, Albert 

Plumper, Anton 

Pickeral. G. W. and Charles 

Rediger, Peter. 

Ritchie, A. D 



114 
115 
115 
116 
116 
116 
117 
118 
120 
121 
112 
121 
123 
123 
124 
124 
126 
128 
129 
129 
129 
130 
130 
131 
132 

la? 

133 
133 
134 
134 
134 
13 
135 
135 
135 
136 
136 
136 
138 
138 
139 
139 
141 
141 
204 
141 
142 



222 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY. NEBRASKA 



Ritchie, Hon. W. E 144 

Reams, Hon. R. C 145 

Rickniann, August 145 

Ricenl)augh, Charles 145 

Richmond, R. B 146 

Rivers, David 147 

Roth, Jacob 147 

Roth, V. L 147 

Rozer, Wm 147 

Ruckdashel, C. A 148 

Rurup, Fred 148 

Rurup, Charles L 148 

Rupp, J. W 149 

Ruton, L. A 149 

Ruzicka, F. M 149 

Robets, Dr. D H 149 

Schmadlewskj-, Paul 150 

Sheelv, J. M 150 

Shultz, Andrew 151 

Shultz, Wm 151 

Shultz, Lothar F 153 

Shultz, Arthur H 153 

Shultz, Henry 154 

Salladin, G. E 154 

Schlueter, H. W 154 

S\ielton, H. H 154 

Sampson, Richard 155 

Shorey, M. E 155 

Seick, Henry 156 

Seick, Ernest 156 

Shank, John S 156 

Staufer, J. L 157 

Slonecker, Henry F 157 

Staufer, J. R 157 

Stolz, P. J 158 

Stolz, J. P 158 

Stolz, H. J 158 

Stolz, W. B 159 

Skillman, A. V 159 

Skillman, Thomas 160 

Smith, A. D 161 

Smith, Wm. H 161 

Smiley, Wm 162 

Smiley, J. M 162 

Schaal, Christian 163 

Shaw, O. A 163 

Snow Simmon 163 



Slonecker George 
Slonecker John 
Slonecker Alonzo 
Slonecker J. W 



164 
164 
165 

165 

Slonecker Russell 166 

Sell John 166 

Steffen.sen Niels 166 

Steckly, Joel 167 

Springer, V. F 167 

Suhr, Fred 167 

Swansen. Peter 168 

Sweasey, S. T 168 

Sweasey, M. L 168 

Thomas, J. J 169 

Taege, Otto 169 

Taylor, J. G 170 

Taylor, J. R. S 171 

Timblin, F. M 172 

Trimble, VV. R 172 

Thomas, George D 172 

Thompson, Wm. J 173 

Thompson Mi.ss M. E 174 

Tipton, F. B 174 

Troyer, J. D 175 

Underbill, F. J 175 

Unitt, Phillip 175 

Vanderhoof, H 176 

Vanandel, Syrenus 177 

Vrienders, J. S •. 178 

Watts, Wm. L 179 

Waterman, J. H 179 

Wait, William H 179 

Wallick, W. S 180 

Warner, M. W 180* 

Walter, William A 180 

Williams, Prof. F. C 181 

Williams, Wm. S 181 

Weller, Prof. George 181 

Wilson, Hon. H. H 182 

Wertman, C. H 183 

Wilsey, J. A 183 

Watson, Henry 185 

Weaver, A. J 185 

Wickham, H. C 185 

Wickersham, B 185 

Whitter, J. A 186 

Whitnock, W. H 186 



HISTORY OF SEWARD COUNTY, NEBRASKA 



223 



Wardsby, John 186 

Wortendyke, Judge H 187 

Wortendyke, Mrs. E. J 188 

Wooley, Stites 189 

Wise, B. S 191 

Wolvin, Horace 191 

Worthman, W. H. F 192 

Wooley, F. R 19B 

Weber, Jacob 193 



Wright C. J .. 
Wright A. C 
WuUenwaber, 
Wullenvval)er, 



194 

1S4 

Nicholas 195 

F. M 196 



WuUenwaber, Phillip 
Wimberly, T. M 
Zalman, August 
Ziminerer, John 



196 
197 
198 
198 
Zimmerman, Diederick 199 



